Cuban newspaper Communist Youth reports that monopoly telco Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (ETECSA) has said that 7,400 new mobile accounts have been opened since 14 April, when Cubans were allowed to take up the service for the first time. Previously, handsets were offered only to foreigners and government officials, although many others already had cell phones through contracts signed for them by foreigners. According to ETECSA spokesman Maximo Lafuente Vazquez, about 300,000 cellular lines already existed on the island before President Raul Castro’s new government lifted the restriction on service, and the government’s aim is to have 1.6 million subscribers within five years. A service contract costs the equivalent of USD120 to activate — six months’ wages on the average state salary.
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The Cuban News Agency reports that USD250,000 worth of improvements are being made to the fixed line network in the south-central province of Cienfuegos by state-owned incumbent and monopoly telco Cuban Telephone Enterprise (ETECSA). The work includes the digitalisation of exchanges and the installation of new lines to the main medical centres in the province, and to residential zones close to a sugar mill and the oil refinery jointly operated by Cuba and Venezuela. ETECSA spokesman Luis Antuna said that although workers were ‘pushing themselves hard [for the] improvement of local telecommunications,’ the economic, financial and commercial blockade of Cuba by the US means that the cost of the necessary equipment for the project is around 30% higher than it should be.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- March 31st, 2008
- 11:13 am
CUBA’S Government will allow all Cubans to buy and use mobile phones for the first time in the latest step by new President Raul Castro to improve access to consumer goods.
Mobile phone services have been restricted until now to foreigners and government workers.
Many Cubans have for long wanted mobile phone access and hoped it would be among the first steps by Mr Castro, who has promised to start lifting “excessive regulations and prohibitions”.
He succeeded his ailing brother Fidel as Cuba’s first new leader in almost 50 years on February 24.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- March 31st, 2008
- 10:50 am
THE President of Cuba, Raul Castro, has lifted restrictions on personal mobile phone ownership, a move that could increase the flow of political ideas and news in the country.
The decision, announced on Friday in an understated manner in the Communist Party daily Granma, adds to a range of developments indicating that Mr Castro, 76, after decades of working in the shadow of his older brother, Fidel, is beginning to reshape daily life in Cuba.
Since succeeding his brother on February 24, Raul Castro has set about legalising products and services that Cubans have been forced to acquire through stealth and guile on the black market. Besides lifting the mobile phone restrictions, he has quietly ended a ban on personal purchases of some electronic items, including computers, video players, all sizes of televisions, pressure cookers, electric rice cookers, electric bicycles and car alarms.
The ban will be lifted tomorrow. There are unconfirmed reports that Mr Castro has also lifted rules that forced farmers to buy materials at state-run stores and required patients to pick up prescriptions at inconveniently located pharmacies.
Cubans formed long lines on Friday outside mobile phone shops. Until now only top government officials and foreigners had been allowed to own them. But thousands of Cubans have long got around the rule by persuading foreigners or corrupt government officials to sign mobile phone contracts on their behalf.
This was tolerated by the Government and it was common for Cubans to chat openly on phones acquired on the black market. Even police seemed to turn a blind eye.
“This could have a massive impact,” Manuel Cuesta, a dissident, said in Havana. “It opens the possibility for more contact with foreigners, for more text messaging, for a culture of mass communication. You can almost publish a newspaper with messages sent over cell phones.”
But Mr Cuesta cautioned against interpreting the decision too broadly. He said it did nothing to deal with limits on free speech and foreign travel, prohibitions on the ownership and sale of private property, or bans on most forms of private enterprise.
“This is not going to affect in any way the total control that the Government has,” he said. “This is a small step toward liberalisation.”
Cubans have been tantalised in recent days by the prospects for change. The Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, said last week that the Government was considering ending restrictions on foreign travel.
The Government denies most Cubans permission to leave, and discourages travel by charging high fees for exit visas.
Mr Castro’s daughter, Mariela Castro Espin, said in Rome last week that Cuba should abolish travel restrictions, end a ban on Cuban citizens staying at the island’s best tourist hotels, and guarantee access to computers.
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Cubans are to be allowed mobile phones in the latest step by the new President, Raul Castro, to improve access to consumer goods. Cuba has the lowest rate of mobile use in Latin America, and the service had been restricted to foreigners or government officials and employees.
The Cuban telecommunications monopoly Etecsa, a joint venture with Telecom Italia, said it would start sales within days in hard currency.
Many Cubans have for long wanted access to mobiles and hoped it would be among the first steps taken by Mr Castro, who succeeded his ailing brother Fidel as Cuba’s first new leader in almost half a century on 24 February. The President has begun lifting some of the many restrictions on the daily life of Cubans as he tries to meet popular demands for better living standards in the socialist state.
Some Cubans already have mobile phones registered in the name of foreigners or their workplaces. They will now be able to put the contracts in their own names, Etecsa said. Next month, Cubans will be able to buy computers and DVD players, if they have the hard currency to pay for them. Two years ago, banned DVD players were being confiscated by airport customs officials on arrival in Cuba.
President Castro, 76, has also launched a restructuring of agriculture to reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks and increase food production. A major public complaint his government will have to deal with is that wages paid in Cuban pesos are too low, and consumer goods have to be paid for in convertible pesos, or CUCs, worth 24 times more than pesos.
About 60 per cent of Cubans have access to hard currency from cash sent by relatives living abroad, mainly in the United States, or through factory and farm bonuses and tips from foreign tourists.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
It did not quite answer calls for freedom and change, but the reform announced yesterday did at least offer freedom from change for calls.
Cuba’s government lifted restrictions on the ownership and use of mobile phones, marking a small but significant step away from the Fidel Castro era.
A decree published in the Communist party newspaper, Granma, said the public could have prepaid contracts for mobile phones, a luxury previously reserved for senior party officials and employees of foreign companies.
The decision means less fumbling for change for pay phones and raised hopes that the new president, Raúl Castro, would relax other economic and political controls.
Cuba’s telecommunications monopoly, Etesca, made the announcement in a small insert on page two of Granma. “Etesca is able to offer mobile phone service to the public,” it said.
Contracts will have to be paid for in Cuban convertible pesos, a parallel currency geared towards tourists and foreigners worth 24 times the peso used by most Cubans.
Few will initially be able to afford the opportunity - there was no scramble for mobile phones yesterday - but the decree was welcomed as evidence that the authorities were serious about addressing longstanding grievances.
“This shows there is a change in mentality at the top and recognition that Cuba has to move into the 21st century,” a young computer technician, who asked not to be named.
Some Cubans have a mobile phone service in the name of foreigners or their companies, but the island still has the lowest mobile phone use in Latin America.
Etesca, which operates as a joint venture with the Italian communications company Italcom, said it would invest revenues in improving its network and eventually offer a mobile phone service in the commonly held pesos.
“In coming days the population will be informed about the procedures for changing the title of Cuban citizens who until today have acquired [mobile phones] indirectly and the start of the new contracts for natural-born Cubans who are interested,” the statement said.
Since the ailing Fidel resigned last month, Raúl, 76, has made cautious efforts to ease the material hardships which make daily life a grind and erode confidence in the government. The new president, who is deemed less ideological than his charismatic brother, has promised to focus on competence and service delivery and to reduce bureaucracy.
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ETECSA reports 7,400 new accounts (Cuba)
