By Doreen Hemlock
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted May 4 2007
Calls costing about 75 cents a minute may not sound like a bargain, but
AT&T touted a new plan Thursday offering that new rate to Cuba.
The U.S. telecom giant offered the price for landline clients in South
Florida who buy a $7.99 a month Cuba plan and also subscribe to an AT&T
domestic long-distance plan.
AT&T said the rate is lower than its existing plans that run about 85
cents a minute for direct-dial calls to Cuba, a spokeswoman said.
South Floridians calling Cuba would love some price relief.
The tri-county area is home to the largest concentration of Cubans in
the United States -- more than 700,000, according to the 2000 U.S.
census. Callers in the area make the majority of calls from the United
States to the nearby island.
Cuban-born Ania Lopez, 36, who lives in Greenacres in Palm Beach County,
said she tries to limit calls to her mother in Camaguey to twice a week
and only five minutes to keep down her costs. She has tried several
phone companies and phone cards, but still generally ends up spending
about $1.15 a minute to call her family.
"From Cuba to the U.S., it's extremely expensive to call, too," said
Lopez, who works at the Tulipan bakery in West Palm Beach. "They say
it's because of the political relations."
The United States has kept an economic embargo on Cuba for more than
four decades aiming to squeeze the flow of dollars to the communist-run
island. But Washington provides licenses for phone companies to pay
connection fees to Cuba as part of an effort to help maintain family ties.
Analysts say the U.S.-Cuba phone rates are among the world's most
expensive, partly because of high fees set by Cuban authorities. Cuba
relies on the fees as a source of dollars.
In 2000, Havana cut direct phone links with the United States in a spat
over damages awarded to families of anti-communist fliers who Cuba shot
down in 1996. Cuba later restored the connections.
AT&T said its new Cuba plan also reduces rates for direct-dialed calls
from South Florida to other nations, including Brazil for 15 cents per
minute.
Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5009.
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