Cuba Enters the Beeper Age, As Cellphone Calls Go Answered

We often take many things for granted in the United States, oblivious to the outside world. I was amazed at the recent introduction of cellular phones to Cuba. I have become so accustomed to having technology at my fingertips that I found it almost unbelievable that the phenomenon is just being introduced to the communist island. According to the Washington Post, the Nokia 1112 has been introduced to Cubans and they are absolutely mesmerized. As Cuba celebrates its 50th anniversary, the rickety state-run economy struggles to feed, house and care for its people, as well as provide little niblets of the latest technology and niceties available on a global scale. Since Raúl Castro became the president, he has added new items to their island fare. Cubans can now legally purchase items such as DVD players, microwave ovens, desktop computers and yes, mobile phones. The residents have embraced this experiment, especially the cellular phone. To them, the cellphone is a badge of modernity. The government began allowing purchases last April and slashed prices 50 percent in December.

Here's the twist..... Cubans don't actually talk on their cellphones. They use them as pagers. Didn't the pager craze in the United States suffer its demise quickly? Cuba has just entered the Beeper Age. According to Washington Post, the residents who own cellphones rarely answer when they get calls. Instead, they look at the number, find a land-line telephone, which is dirt cheap to use, and return the call. Or, if they are feeling adventurous, they might type a message. Still, no talk. Try telling an American not to talk on their cellphone. Sheesh, that was a scary thought!

There are estimates that there were no more than 250,000 cellphone users in Cuba, which has a population of 11.2 million. The odds are impossibly high for most Cubans to own a cellphone, however. Most cannot afford the new Nokia 1112 phone, they instead have worked out deals for used phones on the gray market, or may get an old phone from a relative living overseas. The government also makes it very hard for a Cuba to get a mobile phone account. To open an account with the state monopoly, ETECSA, the customer must go to one of the few offices in Havana, with the cellphone in hand and wait on line for hours, then pay $65 to activate the service. That may seem like a bargain to you and I, but the average monthly salary in Cuba hovers around $20. I guess the cellphone, a staple in our lives, is an expensive habit in Cuba.

The Cuban government has deliberately made it hard for Cubans to march into the new technological age. This is evidenced from the exorbitant price involved in maintaining the cellphone. Local calls between cellphones cost 65 cents a minute, with cellphone to land line costing slightly more. Calls abroad are laughable. It seems that no-one is crazy enough to call overseas with a cellphone. Let me humor you. Calls to the United States, reportedly costs $2.70 a minute, while calls to Europe will give you a nosebleed--$5.85 a minute. Texting comes in at 17 cents a minute.

I could not survive one minute under the Castro regime. For starters, there is no Web surfing, no YouTube watching, no emailing on cellphones. Cuba connects to the digital world through Italian satellite. Because of the U.S. trade embargo, there is no undersea fiber-optic cable connecting the island to Florida. I can tell you one thing, I am grateful that I live in a democratic country, where I am limited mainly by my capabilities and not the government telling me what to do and when.