On an island with little internet, more Cubans are turning to cell
phones — using them not to talk but to text and page.
By Nick Miroff
Published: May 17, 2010 06:37 ET
A woman take pictures with her cell phone during a protest march in
Havana, March 20, 2010. (Enrique De La Osa/Reuters)Enlarge Photo
HAVANA, Cuba — A cell phone is a handy device on this under-wired
island. Just not for making phone calls.
Cuba's state-run wireless monopoly, Cubacel, has some of the steepest
rates in the world, charging the equivalent of 50 cents per minute for
outgoing and incoming calls. In a country where the average salary is
less than $20 a month, half a day's wages can disappear with the first
"Hola."
And yet, with internet access on the island so limited, Cubans are
increasingly connecting to the world through their cell phones, instead
of the web. When friends or family members dial from abroad, the calls
are free to receive. Ditto for international text messages.
Opponents of the Castro government sense an opportunity in this trend.
The U.S. government, Cuban exile groups and dissidents on the island say
cell phones can be a conduit of unfiltered information to ordinary
Cubans. And the role of cell phone communication via Twitter in
organizing protests in Iran and elsewhere has not gone unnoticed.
Only the Cuban government is not clamping down its network, but opening
it up. Since Raul Castro lifted a ban on Cubans owning cell phones in
2008, the number of wireless accounts in the country has soared by
600,000 to more than 838,000 today, according to Cuban telecom officials.
Activation fees have been slashed from $150 two years ago to roughly
$25. International calling rates are also being cut, and the number of
wireless users in the country (pop. 11 million) is expected to grow to
2.4 million by 2015. The island's GSM network already covers 70 percent
of Cuba's territory and further expansions are planned.
"We're going to keep working to provide the benefits of
telecommunications to a greater number of Cubans," said Cuban telecom
official Maximo Lafuente at a recent press conference in Havana.
"There's no doubt that cell phones are an important foundation to the
country's development."
The U.S. government wouldn't disagree, even if it has a differing type
of "development" in mind. It views cell phones as direct channels of
information to an island where the media is almost entirely
state-controlled and less than 2 percent of Cuban households have an
internet connection. Popular voice-over-internet-protocol services like
Skype are also blocked by the Cuban government.
Last year, the Obama administration exempted U.S. wireless providers
from longstanding trade sanctions against Cuba, calling increased
communications with Cuba "our best tool for helping to foster the
beginnings of grassroots democracy on the island."
"This will increase the means through which Cubans on the island can
communicate with each other and with persons outside of Cuba," the
administration said.
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