The crisis with SIM cards in Cuba for long periods of time is not new, but it is getting worse.
SANTA CLARA, Cuba. – It is not yet 8:00 in the morning and several people are already waiting in line in front of the ETECSA Telepoint, on the central Marta Abreu street in Santa Clara. More than five of those present aired their situation out loud, perhaps in search of some empathy between those who share the same wait. Almost everyone has come to wonder if USIM cards, which have been missing for months in that branch of the state telecommunications monopoly, finally entered.
The night before and in the middle of a blackout, a thief entered the living room of María del Carmen’s house – one of those waiting in line – and took her cell phone from the table. Another man narrates a similar experience: “I was sitting at the door checking Facebook to entertain myself because I had no power and two people passed by on a motorbike and snatched it out of my hands.” A younger boy, who claims to work as a teacher, so he depends almost completely on his cell phone to plan his classes and communicate with his students, had it stolen as if “by magic” at some point on his journey to the Pedagogical School.
All the robbery victims present in the queue maintain the hope of recovering their lines, but the person in charge at the entrance to the establishment tells them the bad news: “This week they have not entered either, neither new ones nor replacement ones.” Inside the establishment, one of the workers suggested to María del Carmen that she stop by to ask “from time to time” or call by phone so that “she wouldn’t miss the trip” because you never know when they will be available again.
It was not until February 2015, when the Resolution 593 from ETECSA that Cubans were allowed to contract up to three permanent cell phone lines whose current cost is 1,000 pesos with an activation fee of 750 CUP and 250 CUP initial balance. Years later, the arrival of mobile data internet triggered the demand for these cards, necessary to access the 3G and 4G network, which even ran out in strategic areas of the capital such as the “José Martí” International Airport, according to reports from that time in the diary 14ymedio.
The crisis with SIM cards in Cuba for long periods of time is not new. In 2022, ETECSA said it had low levels of availability in its commercial network, just when it temporarily limited the acquisition of mobile lines to only one per person and justified it by referring to “that they are purchased in the international market.” In the same publication on social networks, the company concluded with the specification that the possibility of “acquiring mobile lines in USD” was “an independent offer” and had been in force for “more than 10 years”, supposedly to guarantee the necessary funds to acquire “other resources that ensure the telecommunications infrastructure.”
If before the tariff, many Cubans were limited to purchasing perhaps one line or two, demand per user skyrocketed after ETECSA restricted the possibility of recharging to only 360 pesos per month for the purchase of mobile data plans. Logically, if a person has several SIMs, they will have more credit available both to connect and to resell it on the informal market. After the controversial measure, the executive president of ETECSA, Tania Velázquez Rodríguez, recognized that “many times there are no lines to buy”, so they have had to adopt “some measures” such as preventing users from acquiring the two additional lines that correspond to them, “because we simply do not have the lines to market.”
“When they took my cell phone, I had two of mine inside the phone, so I was left without Transfermóvil until I can have one of my own,” specifies Jorge David, the teacher who was the victim of the robbery. “Normally I bought six gigabytes for each of the lines and with that, more or less, it was enough for the month. When I ask inside [de la oficina comercial de ETECSA] They tell me that, if I had someone abroad, they could buy me the third one from abroad to solve until the replacement ones come in.”
Almost in front of the office, another ETECSA commercial establishment sells phones and accessories exclusively in USD, right where users from whom they buy lines from abroad must come to pick them up by presenting their identification card. The salesperson who serves customers explains that, at the moment, there is no possibility of purchasing them using the classic card, and suggests that the family member carry out the process through the page Cuba sounds. The cost of permanent lines in this platform It’s almost $50 ($45.99).
“A line hasn’t been sold here for months, and I’m ashamed to tell people who come to ask that we don’t know how long. There is also no guarantee that when they arrive they will be enough for all the cases we receive daily for loss or theft, which are many,” specifies an ETECSA worker who asked to protect her identity to avoid being fired. “In addition, like in all places in Cuba, cronyism also exists here first,” he said.
Meanwhile, mobile lines are being priced between 10,000 and 15,000 pesos in the informal market, in many cases exclusively in dollars or euros. In a recent Facebook post from the profile Eye Cuba, Dozens of users from all over the country denounced the shortage of the aforementioned USIM in their provinces and the increase in scams due to the urgency of purchasing “from the left.”
