The MoPR Blog

U.S. President George Bush announced on Wednesday that the US will now allow Americans to send cell phones to relatives in Cuba, following the country’s new President Raul Castro’s recent consent for Cubans to own mobile phones. Up until March 28, 2008, cell phones in Cuba were reserved for only executives working for foreign companies or high communist party officials.

But why should Americans send over cell phones when they are now available for purchase in Cuba? Because the majority of Cubans cannot afford the $120+ cell phones available to them. With a $120 price tag, these cell phones run about six times an average Cuban worker’s monthly salary, thus making them available to only the elite population of the country.

Even though the US trade embargo remains in place, Bush said that Americans will now be able to include mobile phones in gift parcels for Cuba.

National Security Council official Dan Fisk said that “Americans will be allowed to send a phone and support an account by paying the bill in the United States” adding that the policy would be ready in as little as two weeks.

Bush commented that it’s “the height of hypocrisy to claim credit to allow Cubans to purchase appliances (mobile phones) that virtually none of them can afford.”

With all of the freedoms we have as Americans, it is difficult to imagine being told by our leaders that we can or cannot use something as basic and fundamental to the way we live our lives as a cell phone.

While the rest of the world is exploding with the latest cell phone technology, there are still parts of the world that aren’t even permitted this basic freedom. Take North Korea, a country far behind its technologically advanced neighbor, where it has been reported that they actually execute people caught with mobile phones. The image on the left shows how technologically backwards it is - the entire country goes dark after nightfall.

Back in February, the ousted Taliban government in Afghanistan threatened Afghan mobile operators demanding that they shut down their networks at night or face attack. Their reasoning was that occupying forces stationed in Afghanistan use mobile phones at night for espionage. The report that leaked this information to the press was made from a meeting with a Taliban spokesperson, on you guessed it – a mobile phone.

So, back to Cuba. Bush hopes the new plan will urge continued reforms within the Cuban government, including free speech. Hey- If they’ve got the phones, let them say what they want, right? But we all know it isn’t that easy.

What other reforms could come out of such a landmark event? Is this another way of getting outside information into Communist Cuba? Sure feels like it.

With cell phones comes Internet access. With Internet access comes portals to worlds long forbidden to the Cuban people. And with new portals opening up comes a more free society, etc. In fact, Cuban telecom company Etecsa expects to sell 1.4 million new mobile phone contracts over the next five years. That’s a lot of users opening a lot of doors.

The truth is the new government continues to balance the need for economic loosening against a desire for a continued rigid political control. The fear of losing control of such a, well… controlled country is evident in their apprehensive restructuring.

What is readily apparent is the potential role that increased penetration of mobile phone technology could have in Cuba. We’ll have to wait and see what the immediate impact will be, but there is no question that this has the potential to change the dynamic of information flow both out of and into Cuba.

As of today, there has been no response from Cuba’s new president on whether or not he is on board for the new plan. Stay tuned. We’ll be sure to keep you posted. - Tamara Parker