By Juan O. Tamayo . jtamayo@herald.com. Published Friday, May 12, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Cuba's telephone company is offering expanded direct-dial service for calls abroad, no longer requiring callers to go through operators but charging a stiff $2.30 per minute for calls to the United States.
Subscribers who want the new service must put down a $25 deposit, limit their calls abroad to $100 per month and pay their long-distance charges in U.S. dollars, ETECSA announced in its April bills to customers.
ETECSA, a joint venture between a government-run firm and Italy's telephone company, said the new service would be available only in neighborhoods with digital call-switching centers.
Most of Havana's call-switching centers have been updated to modern digital equipment in the past few years. But switching equipment dating as far back as the 1930s remains in use throughout Cuba's provinces.
Until now, virtually all Cubans had to dial operators and request international calls. Many suspected that was designed to allow state security agents to listen in on their conversations.
Direct-dial calls abroad were possible only from the few thousand telephones paid completely in U.S. dollars -- cellular phones and regular land lines reserved for diplomats, business people and journalists.
Rates for such phones are high, with one foreigner paying $50 a month for local calls in a country where the average monthly salary stands at $10. Cuba's lowest Internet subscription costs $30 per month.
One Havana resident who signed up for the new service said he was quoted rates of $2.30 per minute to the United States, $3.50 to Latin America, and $5 and higher to Europe.
Most U.S. callers to Cuba pay between 60 cents and $1.30 per minute.
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