Cuba News and Information

DTcuba.com

Cuba is replacing analogue telephone technology with digital services, as part of a strategy to improve telephony on the Caribbean Island.

According to executives from Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA), more than 130,000 phone lines will be digitalized in Cuba.

Technological conversion will involve both telephone lines and 242 plants throughout the country.

At present, 85 percent of Cuba’s telephone lines are digital, although a lot of work has to be done to spread technical improvement to all corners of the country.

As part of the computerization of Cuban society, it is indispensable to have an optical fiber network as the foundation for data and voice transmission.

For that reason, experts are working on the installation of an optical fiber cable that will allow for better security and efficiency in data transmission.

Maceo: Not had problems the last couple of weeks but I call from the UK and presumably you call from the US. I have always found getting through very hit and miss - sometimes I get through first time, at other times I cannot get through direct at all and have to go via the UK operator, who tell me that Cuba is THE worst country to contact by phone! Also one of the most expensive.

We still couldn’t get through last night - that’ three weeks now.  We tried calling for two hours from a Tiscali line in the UK to Centro Habana.

Got through once but they couldn’t hear us.

The rest of the time, either nothing, strange distant unanswered rings etc.

Maybe the problem’ Tiscali rather than Cuba?  I’ve heard that calls to Cuba routed via US-owned systems are very unreliable.  We used to have very few problems with a BT line previously - it was just horrifically expensive!