Re: In Cuba, next restriction to be lifted: Cellphone service

On Mar 31, 5:55 am, " krp" <krp24...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<Mam...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:28b30f49-fd41-4799-abb6-7b702ff5d04d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



On Friday 28 March 2008 09:15, PL wrote:

In Cuba, next restriction to be lifted: Cellphone service
Ray Sanchez | Direct from Havana
7:47 AM EDT, March 28, 2008
Havana, Cuba

Ordinary Cubans will be allowed to buy cell phone service for the
first time, Cuba's phone company announced Friday.

It's a strange phrasing; "will be allowed." What is really
hapening is
that is will be made available whereas before it wasn't.

Until now, Cubans were able to acquire cell phone service only through
foreigners.

It was all there was. They were never "disallowed."

You are LYING again Freddy. It took special permission to have a cell
phone.
You had to be a government official, or a CDR official.
Please krp don't confuse Freddy with facts. Myths and more myths
that's the only thing his feeble mind can take.

We can't confuse Canadian Marxists with facts. Freddy knows well that
his claims are BS. He just repeats the party line like a cheap tape player.
He and Comrade Christensen LOVE to "TELL" Cubans and others with real
knowledge of Cuba what is reality there, Marxist reality, which is almost
always at odds with the truth. The bandwidth existed for a timid expansion
of call service to the people. The government had to invest in cell
infrastructure (cell towers) and wasn't making enough from tourists to make
it pay for itself. The government had NO choice but to open it up because
90% of the capacity was unused. Of course if every Cuban had a cell phone
the system would collapse, it isn't robust enough to handle it. But for now
ETECSA needs more cash. Even a socialist system can sink in red ink. The
cracks weren't slowing either as family members came from the U.S., got a
cell account, and gave the phones to their relatives who were 29 years down
the waiting list for getting a land line, Many neighborhoods that ONCE
(Batista era) had phones no longer have working service. For example,
neighborhood in Holguin still have OLD telephone poles but the copper wire
was ripped off DECADES ago. They stand as monuments to the folly of the
"revolution" perhaps as nothing else can. Not even in the potholes on the
roads not repaved since 1959. There are some interesting stories of road
crews being attacked during the "Revolution" as well.

Change is coming to Cuba. It is going to be a spectator event. My only
question is how much violence shall we see? Discontent is very high, and the
young are really starting to speak out. I think we'll see some of the iron
grip of socialism relaxed, but inevitably the police state will have to
reassert itself in a very draconian way. So - I think confrontations are
inevitable. They surely will be small at first.

Cuba has a history of political violence. I hope that change comes
through peaceful means, but the problem is that tyrants like being
tyrants and do not want to join the unemployment line. They do not
want to give up one gram of power. The longer they wait, the longer
the repression, the worse it will be. One day it will explode.
Something relatively minor would be like the straw that broke the
camel's back.

The key is State Security. Most of them don't believe in what they are
doing. But they are feared. If enough SEGUROSOS change sides, it will
be the end of the regime. I see cracks, or at least fissures that
were not there a few years ago. I know of more than one case where
state security decided to look the other way. Some are even helping
dissidents and other Cubans that want change. These folks want to make
sure that if there is change, they will be able to say: "I was only
doing my intelligence job, but I never tortured and I never killed.
Go ask so and so that they will tell you that I helped them."

This is a positive sign that we are at the beginning of the end of the
Cuban 50 year nightmare.
.

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