CUBACEL recharges - Why Isn’t It Allowed From Inside?

CUBACEL recharges: Why Isn't It Allowed From Inside?

Posted on August 29, 2013



Double Recharge…Double happiness this summer from 30 July to 2 August…

Gift of 30 text messages… Other surprises on these days.



For some time and with some regularity, many Cubans have received

refills on our phones thanks to the generosity of friends and advocates

who support us from the outside. Many others receive it by the kindness

of family and friends living outside of Cuba



These refills, promoted by a subsidiary of ETECSA, CUBACEL, S.A, the

telephone company responsible for cellular telephone service in Cuba,

are announced through a message that appears on our phones with the

following content: "CUBACEL Reports: PROMOTION . Recharge the balance

from overseas from 20.00 CUC and get twice the amount recharged", then

it shows the beginning and ending dates of the promotion.



And this comment is stressed by the writer because I have always been

shocked at the explicit declaration which, by all accounts, is

discriminatory, harmful to Cubans living in Cuba and violates their

rights to enjoy a service even if they have the ability to pay. I have

asked several employees of the Príncipe branch on Carlos III Avenue, and

their answers have been evasive, if not incriminating: "It's

management's decision" "We only work with the public, we don't make the

rules" "Why are you asking me? you should be asking Raúl" I wish I could

ask him, though that would be the least I would ask him.



That is, it's not just about the real and true fact that CUBACEL and

ETECSA take it upon themselves to arbitrarily interrupt at will

telephone communication of those pesky customers who don't have,

according to the system's standards, the "correct" political leaning,

thus, ETECSA violates the contract's conditions, but, in addition, it

voids everyone's rights, including those of people who are obedient or

quiet, who don't bother with political matters.



In short, I would like to know what this policy is about. It is

exclusionary for Cubans residing here, whose money seems to be of

absolutely no value for this telephone company managed by – how well we

know it — the Ministry of the Armed Forces, that is to say, Castro II.



So I appeal to the imagination, information or wisdom of readers to help

me understand what, needless to say, the employees of the Cuban

revolutionary telephone company will never explain. How is it

"politically" possible that a Cuban who has 20.00 CUC to recharge his

cellular phone will be unable to benefit from his own country's company

promotion? Could it have anything to do with the criminal imperialist

blockade? Could it be that the evil "Big, Bad Wolf" and other stateless

Cubans can't prevent us from having émigrés recharge our mobile phones

and yet have the power to influence media policy dictated by the no less

big, bad Cuban dictatorship?



No doubt, the communications issue is extremely delicate for the aging

olive-green cupola. It isn't merely about the undeniably most expensive

cellular telephone service in the world, but, in addition, the only one

that discriminates against its clients for the simple geographically

tragic fate of living inside CUBACEL territory.



Translated by Norma Whiting



2 August 2013



Source: "CUBACEL recharges: Why Isn't It Allowed From Inside? |

Translating Cuba" -

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