IN THE LATEST little freedom handed down to the Cuban people by their new President Raul Castro, Cubans will now be allowed to chat away to their hearts content on their very own mobile phones, to add to the luxury of eating toast.

In the past, the only people actually allowed to own cellular phones were government officials, or Cubans working for foreign companies. Of course that doesn’t mean that regular Cubans hadn’t already found ways to beat the system; many used to ask foreigners to sign the mobile contracts for them, but usage was still low compared with the Latin American average.

Now, however, after an announcement in Cuba’s national newspaper, Granma, the Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA has said that it will start offering mobile phone services to the public within days. The only catch is that the contracts would have to be prepaid and in Convertible Pesos (CUC), which is the currency pegged to the American dollar and used mainly by tourists. Regular Cubans still only get paid the equivalent of about $15 a month, and get their salaries in Moneda Nacional, worth 24 times less than the CUC, making phones a very expensive commodity indeed.

But the high cost is justified by ETECSA's who say that the money brought in will allow the company to better the Cuban telecommunication system with cable technology. They also said in their statement that they would eventually offer the services in regular moneda nacional. In the meanwhile, it’s probably better to stick with the toast. µ

L’Inqs
Fox News

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