The president of the monopoly of the Telecommunications of Cuba (ETECSA), Mayra Arevich, said that the prices of the mobile telephony in the island do not lower to avoid congestions.
During a balance of the Ministry of Communications, the Cuban official said that the conditions presented by the network on the island mean that they cannot provide “affordable services”.
“We do nothing with lower prices and that people cannot connect,” he said.
The official acknowledged that the rates offered are not those that the population aspires and that for some years the prices have not been lowered. Currently calling from the mobile network costs 35 cents CUC per minute and 10 cents between 11:00 PM and 6:59 AM.
Arevich’s words take place a few days after Cuban Communications Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella said in the Mesa Redonda television space that Internet and mobile phone service rates will only be reduced when more access capabilities are created.
“If we were to say tomorrow, and we explain that this way:‘ we are going to put mobile telephony at five cents a minute. ” What would happen? That nobody could talk on the phone, because everyone would come in at once, ”he said.
His arguments provoked the reaction of the Cubans, inside and outside the island, who remembered the similar words spoken by the then president of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcón, to the young Eliécer Ávila, who at that time studied at the UCI.
“If everyone (…) could travel where they wanted, the work that would be in the air of the planet would be enormous,” Alarcón said in a meeting in 2008.
Cuba offers one of the most expensive and inefficient mobile phone services in the world. Its users constantly complain about the poor quality that the network often presents and that ETECSA only enriches itself with its abusive rates.
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