Comment: Cuba should expand its cellular network
Now that Raul Castro is easing
restrictions on the sale of DVDs and computers in Cuba. The obvious next move is
to open up its cellular networks to the local people. It's currently estimated
that out of Cuba's population of 11 million, only 0.2 per cent have access to
the cellular network. In effect, most of those are government officials. Yet the country's cellular operator - Teléfonos Celulares de Cuba (Cubacel),
operates a 900 MHz GSM network which has got pretty good national coverage for
all the places tourists might want to visit.
Mobile Software Insight's efforts to discover who sold the Cubans their GSM
gear proved fruitless. Ericsson sold them their previous AMPS and TDMA gear. Given that the US employs a economic embargo on Cuba, you'd expect the
handsets on sale to be supplied by another supposed communist power such as
China. But, oh no. The vast majority of the models on the Cubacel site are supplied
by Motorola with just one upcoming Nokia. So it's a market ripe for exploitation
– just what the handset vendors want.
There's economic sense in opening up Cuba's cellular network since experience
in developing markets shows they increase trade. Fishermen, for example, land
their fish at whichever port has the strongest demand for that day's catch. Reports always highlight how little the average Cuban earns but then GSM
handsets which cost $20-$30 have now come into existence. Curiously it's TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) – rather than the likes of
Telefonica/O2 – which stands the best chance of opening up Cuba. Empresa de
Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (Etecsa) which owns Cubacel is in turn part owned by
Telecom Italia.
And, as Mobile Software Insight has pointed out before, if North Korea
can build a W-CDMA network, then why can't another communist state like Cuba?
After all, the cellular industry virtually invented the concept of the 'walled
garden' where only very restricted bits of the mobile web are accessible.
The full Inquirer story ...
here
www.cubacel.cu
