THE Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA), has announced that, via an investment process, it is now able to supply the population with a cell phone service, introduced into the country in a limited form in 1991.

In a note published in the national press, ETECSA states that it has given priority to an investment program that will make it possible to begin to extend certain services as part of the development of telecommunications on the island.

It adds that the investment is to be based on credits and technology forthcoming from friendly countries.

Priority will be given to the municipalities with the lowest phone density and to areas with more than 300 inhabitants that are still lacking a telephone service.

The first stage will consist of solutions for a collective use of the service.

In relation to cell phones, these will be offered on the basis of personal pre-paid contracts. The service is available in convertible Cuban pesos (CUC) "to defray the development of cable connectivity, which has an important role in the computerization of society, as well as to facilitate the introduction of new telephone services in national currency."

The national press added that the Ministry of Informatics and Telecommunications has announced that it is about to publish regulations to assure the instigation and control of the program in an orderly and progressive way.

Granma 27-03-2008