14ymedio, Havana, 16 June 2016 – Customers of Cuba’s Telecommunications Company SA (ETECSA) have seen their cellphone service affected since early Thursday morning. The messaging service (SMS) does not work correctly due to instabilities in cellular coverage.
The company has not sent any SMS information to its customers nor has it made a statement to the official Cuban media. Yes it has distributed a press release through its Twitter and Facebook accunts explaining that the failure from “the early hours of today,” is due to “voltage fluctuations in the network supplying the equipment of the mobile service infrastructure. ”
The state company claims that this is the reason why service was affected in the province of “Mayabeque, the special municipality Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth), and municipalities in Havana including: Plaza of the Revolution, Centro Habana, Cerro, Habana Vieja, Diez de Octubre, Arroyo Naranjo, Boyeros and San Miguel del Padron.”
Some users trying to communicate at the stroke of noon said that despite their phones indicating they had coverage, they received an error message when trying to send an SMS.
Internet services at the public wireless points are also unstable. “The signal comes and goes,” says a young woman trying to connect in the park at Linea and L Street in Havana’s Vedado area. A telecommunications agent in the Plaza municipality told 14ymedio that several clients had been to ask him if he was aware of the problem.
According to the press release, signed by the ETECSA Communications Department, “specialists have worked continuously on the solution to the failure and steb-by-step service had been restored.” As usual in these cases, the company also “apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
