The Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa) announced a tariff cut on Thursday and launched new web browsing packages from mobile phones, an action that reflects the regime’s concern about Washington’s moves to bring free internet access .
In this context, Etecsa has announced some cosmetic changes. With the caption: “+ MB X Less price” and published on its networks the renewal of its 14 GB LTE package that cost 1,125 CUP and will now be 16 GB for 950 CUP. The changes, which went into effect Thursday, are also reflected in combos that include web browsing, calling and SMS.
The Basic Plan will cost 125 CUP, now 800 MB, 20 minutes and 20 SMS; the Medium Plan will be 250 CUP, 2 GB, 30 minutes and 40 SMS, and the Extra Plan 500 CUP 4.5 GB, 75 minutes and 80 SMS.
Etecsa announced on its networks the renewal of its 14 GB LTE package that cost 1,125 CUP and will now be 16 GB for 950 CUP
The new packages come at a time when customers have been demanding a flat rate, so Etecsa is far from the claims of its users. Until now, this modality is only offered to private workers, at very high prices still.
The sales are far from the pockets of people who receive a minimum monthly salary of 2,100 Cuban pesos, although there are offers of combined packages. And it adds to the adjustment from August 1 in the cost of domestic SMS that have the value of 1 peso and the time of international navigation costs 12.50 for customers with permanent accounts
It is worth remembering that the use of SMS has lost interest and has been the target of controls, surveillance and censorship of text messages where a few characters and words have been blocked for sending and this makes them less and less employed by Cubans who prefer to take refuge in safer services such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.
The Cuban government is trying to avoid the Washington initiative with all the weapons at its disposal. And proof of this is that the Cuban authorities have denounced before the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the initiative to consider it “a clear violation of sovereignty and national security,” as revealed on Tuesday on the television program Table Round the Deputy Minister of Communications Wilfredo González.
The Cuban government is trying to avoid the Washington initiative with all the weapons at its disposal
“The United States wants to provide a parallel Internet to our country (…), and we really will not allow this interference, because it would be violating not only our Constitution, but also the very preamble of the Constitution of the Union International Telecommunications Agency (ITU), “he said.
The advent of mobile internet in Cuba occurred in December 2018. The Island was the last country in the region to allow its citizens to surf the internet via their mobile phones.
At the end of 2018, the Executive of Miguel Díaz-Canel allowed the sale of the first navigation plans through data. Cubans were able to buy their first cell lines in 2008, after reforms pushed by former governor Raul Castro.
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