Cuba surpasses million cell phone lines
HAVANA, July 15 – Mobile telephones in Cuba surpassed a million lines, a figure higher than that of fixed telephones but still considered insufficient by the communications sector’s authorities, said Máximo la Fuente, vice president of mobile services of the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA).
Cuba’s total population is 11.2 million inhabitants.
Ever since the government opened access to Cuban natural persons in 2008, the growth has been of more than 700,000 new lines, reported IPS.
Cubans with family members abroad who send them remittances are the segment of the population most likely to have a cell phone. This because the cost of a cell phone line and for calls is in hard currency (CUC) and the fact that Cubans earn regular Cuban pesos (MN) at their jobs.
One million phone lines! Wow! Well, better to have a cell phone than food on the table and medicine in the cabinet. The million people who have the cell phones sure know where their priorities lie. My question is: how did these people survive before the cell phone?