|
FROM
CUBA
Cell phones hard to get, expensive, for
Cubans
Aimée Cabrera
HAVANA, Cuba - August (www.cubanet.org)
- At half a dollar per minute of use and
150 to 200 dollars in the black market for
the phone itself, cell phone service is
prohibitively expensive for the average
Cuban. The two entities selling cel phone
service on the island, Telcel, and Secom,
only offer it to foreigners and to Cubans
who are specifically authorized to have
the service. In any case, the service must
be paid for in dollars; pesos are no good
here.
Yet, with scarce land lines and often little
hope of getting one, some Cubans who have
access to dollars sometimes take a chance
on a cell phone.
A young couple who gave up waiting for
a land line recently decided to obtain a
cel phone. They managed to find someone
who sold them the unit, with the condition
that should there be a problem with the
phone, they need to go through the rightful
owner to obtain service.
Still, they say, it's hard to pay that
much money and be constantly at risk that
the line could go down and they would lose
their investment. Also, they point out,
not everyone has a friend or relative abroad
who will send the required hard currency.
Versión
original en español
| 
