Cuba to introduce temporary international mobile call rate cut

Cuban state telco Etecsa has introduced a temporary cut in international calling rates from mobile phones, applicable from February 1-April 30, Cuban press reported.

The rates apply to prepaid and postpaid customers. In the case of prepaid, calls from Cuba to other parts of the Americas, except Venezuela, will cost 1.10 pesos (US$1.10) per minute and 1.20 pesos to anywhere else.

Text messages will cost 0.60 pesos to countries with which Etecsa has agreements.

President Raúl Castro began allowing the sale of cellular phone services to the general public for the first time in 2008, though even today the cost of mobile calls is still prohibitive for many. Etecsa said in June last year that Cuba was expected to reach 2mn mobile lines by the end of 2013 and 4mn in the next five years.

At the end of January, Etecsa announced it plans to launch mobile broadband services in the second half of 2014, according to a report by Cuban news agency ACN. The service will initially be available in the Havana capital area and give users access to e-mail and browsing.

On June 4, last year the Cuban government allowed normal Cubans unrestricted access to the web and by the end of August more than 100,000 had signed up.

Internet, which was previously available only to foreigners, was first made available to ordinary Cubans in February last year thanks to the activation of a fiber optic cable connecting Cuba to Venezuela and Jamaica.