The president of the monopoly admits that they violated the contract to avoid “anxiety” and public action.
14ymedio, Havana, 1 June 2025 — Despite the damage control operation launched by Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (Etecsa) after announcing its latest price increase, which Cubans call the ’tarifazo’*, indignation among Cubans not only persists but has multiplied. Even official newspapers, such as the Matanzas Girón, published this Saturday an editorial with the flavor of protest. The Communist Party, with its usual arsenal of excuses, has ordered its cadres to justify the measure and organize “closed” meetings with various sectors, such as university students, in order to offer “specific solutions.”
The appearance this Saturday of the state monopoly directive on State TV’s Round Table program did not calm the waters. Randy Alonso acted more as the head of public relations for Etecsa than as a communicator. Faced with such a disconnection from reality, the regime activated plan B: Lázaro Manuel Alonso, the young face of officialdom with “license” to ask more incisive questions, although within the limits of the approved script.
The response of the president of Etecsa was a combination of corporate drama and revolutionary victimization]
“Why now?” asked the intrepid Alonso, alluding to the context of national weariness over blackouts, inflation, and a multisectoral crisis that is no longer worsening but is in its death throes. The response of Tania Velázquez Rodríguez, president of Etecsa, was a combination of corporate drama and revolutionary victimization: technological obsolescence, international frauds and unpayable debts. The full catalogue of the “good monopoly” manual in distress.
But if there is one thing that has not changed since the foundation of Etecsa, it is its financial opacity. Without competition, it can raise prices, offer questionable services and curb technological innovation without fear of retaliation. By the way, it reserves the right to cut off communications in case of protests, becoming the official fire-extinguisher of the regime. The problem is that so much abuse without competition also takes its toll, and not precisely in national currency.
Even other communist countries have preferred to open the cage a little
State monopolies like Etecsa are an endangered species. Andorra, with just 85,000 inhabitants, and Ethiopia (which has already sold 10% of its Ethio Telecom) are similar rarities. Even other communist countries have preferred to open the cage a little. Vietnam, for example, has operators like Viettel, MobiFone and Vinaphone, which compete with each other as good capitalist comrades. In China, although all companies are state-owned, they compete fiercely for the market. Even the paranoid North Korea has two operators: Koryolink (a joint venture with Orascom) and Kangsong NET, a state network launched in 2015.
Velázquez pulled out the excuse of “the cost of submarine cables.” The ALBA-1, launched in 2011 and operational since 2013, unites Cuba with Venezuela and Jamaica. Its 1,602 kilometers and 640 Gbps (gigabit per second) capacity cost 70 million dollars. More recently, the Arimao cable, 2,470 kilometers, linked the island with Martinique thanks to an agreement with the French Orange S.A. That’s a lot of fiber optics, yes, but with few visible results for ordinary Cubans who still depend on WiFi zones of the last century.
And no wonder: more than 85% of Etecsa’s infrastructure is obsolete, and more than half of its radio base stations lack energy backup. With the blackouts, the whole country can be disconnected. In addition, 10% of radio base stations have technical failures which, according to the directive, could not be resolved because of “lack of resources.”
Regarding the loss of foreign exchange, Velázquez admitted that the monopoly has ceased to capture “more than 60%” of what it used to receive from abroad. He also regretted that the “official channels” for recharging are “not being used as before.”
Velázquez, without blinking an eye, explained that this was not possible because “it would generate anxiety”
And then came the stellar moment: the justification of the violation of Etecsa’s own contract. Article 19 of the prepaid contract establishes the obligation to inform customers 30 days in advance of any price change. But Velázquez, without blinking an eye, explained that this was not possible because it “would generate anxiety” and possibly cause “actions” of the customers.
Etecsa, however, may have underestimated the reaction. This time it is not just complaints about being the last in line to buy chicken. Various sectors of civil society and the exile are organizing a concrete response. Between June 3 and 9, a campaign with the hashtags #BajenLosPreciosDeInternet, #EtecsaImpopular and #NoMasRecargasACuba will be deployed on X. The call sends a clear message: national patience is not infinite, let alone prepaid.
All this happens at the gates of summer, the season that in Cuba not only brings heat but also political commotion. If the regime has shown anything, it is that it fears a July with blackouts and disconnection more than any external sanction. What Etecsa did not calculate is that, with each rate increase, it is not only increasing its revenues, but also the chances of a new explosion.
*Translator’s note: The “azo” ending in Cuban Spanish is a ’magnifier’, in this case, roughly: “the gigantic price increase thing”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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