Luis Viño Zimerman
HAVANA, January – Finding a working public phone in Havana is almost
impossible; the government phone company, ETECSA, cannot keep them in working
order.
Last week I went looking for a working phone and gave up after finding 90
broken units. The phones, installed by ETECSA in cooperation with its foreign
partners, are digital, modern equipment, whose screens typically reads "Use
only in case of emergency," "Out of service," or "Hang up
and wait a few minutes."
If you find one that reads "Deposit coin," a Cuban five-cent
piece, you will dial the number to hear a voice say "The number dialed is
not assigned to a suscriber," or "The number dialed is not in service."
This happens even when you call your own home or office number which you left in
perfect working order a short while before.
The problems only apply to coin-operated phones; those that work with
pre-paid cards all seem to work fine.
ETECSA officials who commented on condition of anonimity said that the coin
phones cannot be repaired because there are no parts to do it. "We can only
take care of the residential sector and the equipment installed in government
offices," said one.
Another official said, "The repairs of the public phones are very
expensive and must be paid in dollars, so we are giving priority to the pre-paid
card phones, which are cheaper to buy and repair, even though they must also be
paid for in dollars."
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