Cuba gets back to the future
10:14AM Tuesday April 15, 2008
By Marc Frank
HAVANA - Hundreds of Cubans are lining up at state-owned telephone
offices this week to buy cellular phone services previously available
only to government officials and foreigners.
President Raul Castro, who took power in February, has moved quickly to
ease restrictions in the communist country and the new reform allows
Cubans to buy cellular phones for the first time or register those they
had held illegally.
"It is an advance, like other things that are happening in Cuba now,"
said Alejandro, smiling with his new contract in hand. The self-employed
Cuban has used a cellular telephone illegally for years in the name of a
foreigner.
"Before we had to get the line through a foreigner, who was the only
person authorised to do so," said Mayerlin, a mother of two, waiting in
line for her telephone.
Thousands of Cubans were expected to take advantage of the op****tunity
to buy the service in the coming days, even though it costs the
equivalent of nine months' pay for the average wage-earner.
"It is a very good measure, but what we earn does not correspond with
the price," said 33-year-old Gustavo, who nevertheless waited with
around 100 others at an office in Havana's colonial district to buy the
service.
Cuba has the lowest rate of cellular telephone use in Latin America.
Customers will pay for their calls with prepaid cards bought in hard
currency, and will be able to receive and make international calls.
New freedoms
Raul Castro has moved quickly to lift what he has called "excessive
prohibitions" in Cuba since succeeding his ailing older brother Fidel
Castro as president in February.
Cubans are now allowed to buy DVD players, computers and other
electronic goods, and stay at tourist hotels previously reserved only
for foreigners.
But increased access to consumer goods and services comes at a price
many Cubans can't afford.
The average state wage is around 400 Cubans pesos ($22), per month. Most
consumer goods are priced in convertible pesos, or CUCs, a hard currency
worth 24 times more than the peso.
About 60 per cent of Cubans have access to hard currency from cash
remittances sent by relatives living abroad, mainly in the United
States, or through factory and farm bonuses and tips from foreign
tourists.
A cellular telephone line costs 110 CUCs and the cheapest cellular phone
is priced at 60 CUCs, equivalent to about $82.
"It is expensive for us. I can't pay that in one month or in 10 months,"
said Mayerlin. She said only Cubans who rent rooms to foreigners, work
for a foreign company or receive money from abroad could afford the
prices.
Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA, a joint venture in which
Telecom Italia has a 27 per cent stake, last month announced it would
begin selling the service to Cubans. It said the income would be used to
expand land lines, where Cuba has the sixth lowest density in Latin
America.
Many Cubans have for long wanted access to cellular phones and hoped it
would be among the first steps taken by Raul Castro, who succeed his
brother as Cuba's first new leader in almost half a century on February
24.
"We used to go crazy looking for a foreigner to get us a line," said
Rosario Iglesias, a Havana housewife. "It is a very good decision that
benefits all Cubans and raises our self esteem."
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