Ten years ago the Cuban government announced the transition to digital television and today it has barely managed to market less than 800,000 decoder boxes through its national company. The official press reviews the situation this Monday, which keeps hundreds of thousands of families connected to analog television.
The sale price of these decoders is 1,250 pesos, but it is almost impossible to access them and, even less, for that value. As the official press acknowledges, in hard currency stores, the price is 50 MLC (freely convertible currency), which at the official exchange rate of 1×120 amounts to about 6,000 pesos, almost 2,000 more than the salary Cuban average.
“It would also be worth evaluating, in addition to the granting of bank credits, the implementation of the purchase in the modality of installment payments,” recommends Granmaaware of how complicated it is to have the device when in many provinces the transformation of the emission has already been completed.
The note contains minimal but illustrative data. In Mantua (Pinar del Río) there are 9,000 homes and only 6,000 decoder boxes. “The distribution, sale and assignment of these attachments has not occurred,” said journalist Lázaro Boza, who provided the information last year.
Ana Julia Marine López, Vice Minister of Communications, hides behind the embargo to justify that a decade has not been enough to make the transition. The official affirms that the measures have “attacked against the industry itself” and, directly, in the “lack of devices”.
“It would also be worth evaluating, in addition to the granting of bank credits, the implementation of the purchase in the installment payment modality”
However, it states that 100% of the schools (19,300) received the resources that have allowed them to continue the teleclasses, thanks to the delivery of more than 20,000 hybrid televisions. The question, he acknowledges, is how many people were left without this educational path, in force during the pandemic, because they did not have the necessary equipment.
The official is also pleased that the State has assumed the cost of modules for the more than 54,000 assistedwhich includes a box, the antenna and the connector.
Since 2013, when the transition program towards DTT (digital terrestrial television) began, 3.4 million receivers have been sold if hybrid televisions are added to the boxes. According to the forecast, the national industry should annually produce 300,000 decoders and 20,000 televisions, but the lack of foreign currency has led to a huge lag.
Lázarojim Alberto Campos Martínez, president of the Electronics Group, insists that the fault lies with the blockingwhich prevents normal trade with the Island. In 2021, however, the government announced that it would sell some 300,000 units of boxes made in China from April of that year, a contract that “is already being executed, and to which financing will continue to be assigned as amounts are approved,” added the manager.
Campos Martínez said that up to now, 797,126 units have been marketed, of those assembled by the Comandante Camilo Cienfuegos Electronic Industry Company in Cuba and later marketed through Copextel, in addition to almost 300,000 32, 42, 43 and 58-inch televisions. To these should be added those imported by the chain stores that are sold in MLC.
Since 2013, when the DTT transition program began, 3.4 million receivers have been sold if hybrid televisions are added to the boxes
In the medium term, it is expected that with last year’s budget they will finish assembling 13,500 more boxes and with financing managed by the company -through the exchange scheme-, parts and pieces were imported for another 4,000 that will be sold this June and next July in national currency and at specific points of sale indicated by the entity responsible for that project.
More information: in the remainder of the year, 50,000 boxes will be sold, but for the moment only 20,000 have guaranteed packaging and we will have to see what happens with the rest. There is also another amount reserved for almost 3,000 more devices, including decoders and televisions. Campos Martínez has specified that there will be a volume reserved for sale through electronic commerce “as a measure to recover foreign currency for the replenishment of raw materials,” he excused.
On the other hand, the engineer points out that there is a 15% budget exclusively for repairing the boxes that have already been sold and have “some defect”. “We are not in a position to drop teams that have a solution,” he argued.
The own manufacture of decoders is also too late. After so many years, the national prototype is now ready, but it must be validated and certified before proceeding to eventual series production. “The curious thing about the Cuban box is that its revision process began in 2022, not counting the time it was developed; somewhat delayed if one takes into account the speed with which technology is updated in the world,” the note admits.
Meanwhile, the informal market follows its own rules. The note underlines that hoarding and speculative prices are also evident in this segment and that they must learn from this experience to complete the conversion process, which is now advancing through the center and east of the Island.
The boxes on online commerce pages such as revolico They can reach up to 12,000 pesos or 80 dollars.
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