The Green Screen

Cuba allows unrestricted cellular phone service HAVANA (Reuters)

Cuba announced on Friday that it will allow Cubans the unrestricted use of mobile telephones for the first time in the latest step by new President Raul Castro to improve access to consumer goods.

Cuba has the lowest rate of cellular telephone use in Latin America with the service been mainly restricted until now to foreigners and government officials.

The Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA said it would begin mobile phone service for the general public in the next few days.

"ETECSA is able to offer mobile phone service to the public," it said in a statement published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

Many Cubans have for long wanted access to cellular phones and hoped it would be among the first steps taken by Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro as Cuba's first new leader in almost half a century on February 24.

Some Cubans have mobile phone service in the name of foreigners or their work places. They will now be able to put the contract in their own names, ETECSA said.

It said the new service would be paid for in hard currency in order to fund the development of Cuba's telecommunications systems and extend land line telephone services.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Kieran Murray)

About time.

Where will they get the money to pay for the cell phones?

Is Raul going to sell them prepaid cell phone cards too?

I can just imagine what the cards will look like with some of those insanely stupid slogans from the robolution...........

Quiennosabe Wrote:Where will they get the money to pay for the cell phones?

Same place they get it now....Miami relatives, foreign boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. They can do the paperwork themselves, in their own name, so the govt can be SURE who is using them

El Techo Wrote:

Quiennosabe Wrote:Where will they get the money to pay for the cell phones?

Same place they get it now....Miami relatives, foreign boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. They can do the paperwork themselves, in their own name, so the govt can be SURE who is using them

Absolutely. It is another tax on people with relatives in the US. Still at least this time they are getting a service.

Funny George. !!!

This only happened because I have already used up my three that I could arrange on my passport, Je! Je! Je!

So let's see now; the Cubans with NO money can now have a cell phone. Maybe they can call a hotel and make a reservation to stay there "someday" and pay for that with the money they DON'T have.

Beats me. Must be something to do with Hispanic logic - which I never did understand.