Recently, Cuba’s only telephone company reported that 7,400 new mobile phone accounts have been contracted in the 10 days since all Cubans were allowed to sign up for the service.
Previously, mobile phones were offered only to foreigners or Cubans in top government positions or jobs with foreigners. However, that haven’t stopped many clever Cubans to get mobile phones through contracts foreigners opened for them.
According to the Cuban phone company official Maximo Lafuente Vazquez, about 300,000 lines already existed on the island before April 14, when President Raul Castro’s new government lifted the restriction on service.
Pricing remains the problem, though. A mobile phone contract costs about $120 to activate, which is about half a year’s wages on the average state salary.
[Via: Yahoo, image from mbayley.ca]