Posts tagged Cuba at Switched

Posts with tag cuba

US to Lift Ban on Sending Cell Phones to Cuba

by Terrence O'Brien, posted May 22nd 2008 at 12:02AM

Cell phones are finally available for purchase in Cuba, but they're so prohibitively expensive that many Cubans can't afford them. Luckily, President Bush recently announced that the ban on sending cell phones to Cuba would be lifted soon, which means that Americans will be able to send phones to relatives or friends who can't afford them.

It's perhaps just the first step towards more open exchanges with the communist country as it softens its restrictions on non-essential items like consumer electronics and home appliances. Soon Cubans will be able to send dirty text messages and vacuum their living rooms all at the same time. [Source: BBC, Via: Textually]

PCs Go On Sale In Cuba For $800 a Pop

by Tim Stevens, posted May 5th 2008 at 1:09PM

Times they are a'changing in Cuba. Since their inception, mobile phones and personal computers have been banned in the island nation, but with new president Raul Castro have come a number of reductions in such prohibitions. First came cell phones, and now Cuban citizens are being allowed to buy personal computers -- if they can afford them.

The detailed specs of the machines unfortunately have not reached our shores, but one crucial stat has been released: price. The boxes cost Cubans roughly $800, which seems a bit expensive compared to the numerous machines available in the US for well under $500. Even so, $800 doesn't seem too outrageous, until, of course, you learn that the average wage of Cuban citizens is just $20 per-month. And, with no Internet access available to individuals in the country, it's not like Cubans can do very much with the things.

So, welcome to the computer age, Cubans. Here's hoping it doesn't take the same length of time to get you online! [Source: BBC News]

Uncensored Cuban Blogs Speak Out

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Apr 28th 2008 at 3:03PM

Yoani Sanchez, dressed as a tourist in her own country, ducks into posh hotels that provide Internet access for foreign travelers on a regular basis, just so she can spend large chunks of her modest paycheck to post complaints about the Cuban government on her blog. Her blog, Generation Y, is widely read both in Cuba and abroad and has earned her many fans. Sanchez posts under her real name, something that just 10 short years ago would have been unthinkable and would have guaranteed her arrest.

Thanks to being granted the right to own personal computers one month ago, younger generations of Cubans are becoming more vocal in their opposition to government policies and less afraid to openly state their opinions. Sites such as Sin EVAsion and Petrosalvaje also feature Cubans voicing opposition to the government under their real names.

While the Cuban government has yet to try and arrest the authors and owners of these Web sites ,it is still dangerous for them to operate. These brave Cubans risk arrest every day by illegally connecting to the Internet and posting anti-government speech. [Source: AP/AOL News, via USA Today]

Cubans Line Up For Cell Phones

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Apr 15th 2008 at 4:11PM

Despite prohibitively high activation fees of $120 (about half a year's salary for an employee of the government), Cubans lined up on Monday to get their hands on the first legally available consumer cell phones in the country. Of course, a cell phone and minutes were an additional charge, but that didn't stop people from flooding the streets causing waits of up to an hour just to sign up for a contract.

Fidel's brother Raul Castro has pledged to remove many of the restrictions on electronics and home appliances, such as DVD players and dishwashers, which have been used to keep living conditions among Cubans equal. Still, with prices this high, the move seems to be pure political theater.

From USA Today

Internet Limitations Rankle Cubans, Information Still Gets Around

by Will Safer, posted Apr 1st 2008 at 11:56AM

A modern version of the "sneakernet" is alive and thriving in Cuba, where Internet access and an open online discourse is seriously limited by the government.

Case in point: an underground, informal network of Cuban citizens share Web video, articles and messages that most of view and share online by way of flash drives, which they use to manually transfer data to one another, bypassing the restricted cyberspace, putting banned information directly into each other's hands.

(Sneakernet is the term many Web users have used for years now to describe physically carrying files from one place to another on solid state memory cards.)

In a particularly interesting case, a Cuban computer science student took a government official to task over the restrictions to information and travel imposed on citizens of the island nation. While the exchange, which was recorded on video, could not be sent around on YouTube or MySpace the way it is in free nations, copies have been making there way around on flash drives carried from place to place by hand. A copy eventually made its way out to CNN and the BBC.

The video also shows the official struggling to explain everything from travel restrictions to why Cubans can't go to the resorts based in their country.

From The Raw Feed.

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Cuba Lifts Restrictions On Mobile Phones

by Dan Reilly, posted Mar 28th 2008 at 1:32PM

In a sign that Cuban residents will be getting more freedom, president Raul Castro announced that he would allow mobile phone use for the country's citizens. Previously, access was limited only to employees of foreign firms and government officials.

The announcement, made in Communist newspaper Granma, said that Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA "is able to offer mobile phone service to the public." As a way around the ban, many Cubans would have foreigners sign contracts for them, but now they'll be able to purchase prepaid plans through the company. This comes as part of Castro's pledge to make "structural changes" and "big decisions," which, according to a leaked internal memo, may also allow Cubans to own appliances DVD players and computers.

Although the news is promising for Cuba, which currently has the lowest rate of cellular use in Latin America, it likely won't be priced for the average citizen. The plans can only be bought in Cuban Convertible Pesos, worth 24 times the regular Cuban peso used in normal paychecks. ETECSA says this will allow them to improve telecommunications throughout the country, with regular peso plans being available in the future.

So, great news for Cuba, but still, no cigars for us.

From Reuters/AOL News (via Engadget)

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Travelocity Busted for Going to Cuba

by Tim Stevens, posted Aug 16th 2007 at 3:11PM

Travelocity's roaming gnome must either have a taste for cigars, or a taste for La Revolución. The company has just settled a fine that it was recently socked with for booking illegal trips to Cuba; Cuba, as any decent bald eagle saluting American knows, is our mortal enemy (or, one of many). Relations are so strained with the island nation that travel to it by U.S. citizens is forbidden by law, except for certain academic, religious, journalistic or humanitarian reasons. Even then, travel must be booked through an agent licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Travelocity is not one of these agents.

The company's spokesman blamed a series of "technical failures" for the illegal bookings, which amounted to some 1,500 trips to Castroland between 1998 and 2004. Just the same, Travelocity was ordered to pay a $182,750 fine to the Office of Foreign Assets Control for its crimes against America.

$182,750 is an awful lot of lawn ornaments ...

From 'The New York Times'

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