Published Tue May 17, 2005 by Publisher in Cuba Business.
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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.
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On Wed May 18, 2005, Maceo wrote:
Has anyone else been having trouble connecting with Cuba via phone within the last couple of weeks?
Couldn’t get through at all on mothers’ day, nor last Sunday.
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On Wed May 18, 2005, Cubana wrote:
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.
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On Wed May 18, 2005, SED wrote:
Hi,
I call regularly from the UK and agree with Maceo, it’ a bit of a game at the best of times. I’ve found calling from my mobile to be easier and I get a clearer line. This was proving to be to expensive though so I’m back on the standard BT line..I’m glad that they’re digitizing the rest of the network though.
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On Mon May 23, 2005, Maceo wrote:
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!
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On Mon June 06, 2005, jaymerr wrote:
In case itīs of any interest I use a callback service for my calls to Cuba :
http://www.phone-magic.com/callback_home.html
The rate is US$ 1.375/min (UK-CUBA)
It works quite well (pretty good for other destinations too!)