GL 61 authorizes transactions ordinarily incident and necessary to the provision from the United States or by a U.S. person of goods, technology, software, or services for the installation, maintenance, refurbishment, repair, upgrade, operation, or support of telecommunications in Venezuela, including transactions involving the Government of Venezuela, including but not limited to the Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL), Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), and Movilnet.
For purposes of GL 61, telecommunications includes data, telephone, internet connectivity, radio, television, news wire feeds, and similar services, regardless of the medium of transmission, including transmission by satellite or through submarine cables.
Authorized transactions include: processing payments and arranging shipping, including air freight, logistics, warehousing, insurance, and delivery services; interconnection and roaming agreements; capacity or infrastructure leases; and the laying, maintenance, repair, refurbishment, upgrade, security, operation, or support of submarine cables and other telecommunications infrastructure or equipment; and the provision, licensing, renewal, maintenance, or support of related software, systems, and services, including software updates and network-support services. The provision of other financial services for the refurbishment, repair, upgrade, operation, or support of telecommunications in Venezuela would also be authorized to the extent ordinarily incident and necessary to the authorized telecommunications-related activity and provided that it does not involve debt swaps or other payment terms prohibited by GL 61.
Examples of transactions authorized by GL 61 include those ordinarily incident and necessary to the provision of:
- telecommunications equipment and network infrastructure, including broadband access equipment, components, and spare parts;
- telecommunications capacity or infrastructure through leases, including fiber-optic pairs and satellite bandwidth;
- international telecommunications connectivity, including IP transit;
- telecommunications-related:
- software, including licensing, renewals, updates, maintenance, and technical or vendor support;
- cloud services;
- data storage and backup systems, network monitoring and automation platforms;
- customer billing systems; and
- servers and other computing systems used to support telecommunications.
Notably, GL 61 does not authorize:
- payment terms that are not commercially reasonable, involve debt swaps or payments in gold, or are denominated in digital currency, digital coin, or digital tokens issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela, including the petro;
- any transaction involving a person located in or organized under the laws of Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, or the People’s Republic of China, or an entity owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by or in a joint venture with such a person;
- the unblocking of property blocked pursuant to the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations;
- transactions involving blocked vessels; or
- the formation of new joint ventures or other entities in Venezuela to develop or invest in the telecommunications sector.