“It’s still cheaper to buy a 6GB package on the street for 1,000 or 1,500 pesos, not this 2GB scam for 1,200 pesos.”
14ymedio, Havana, 19 June 2025 — The new data plans for web browsing of the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa), announced on Thursday — after three weeks of student protests over the price increases — the so-called ‘tarifazo‘ — imposed on May 30 — have not taken long to awaken indignation.
As explained by the state monopoly, one of them is called the Additional Plan, through which you can buy 2 gigabytes (GB) for 1,200 pesos — added to the basic 6 GB for 360 pesos and 30 days — “once a month and with a validity of 35 days.” The second, the Sector Plan, is exclusively for students and offers an additional 6 GB for 360 pesos. Both will be available starting this Friday.
In the report published by official media, Etecsa recognizes that 38% of users in Cuba consume more than 8 GB. They therefore apologize: “Our company is aware that there are sectors with greater consumption needs and that this Additional Plan will be insufficient for them; but in the current conditions, it is the solution that can be provided to increase the level of connectivity of our customers.”
The new rates provide for “extra” plans in dollars at a cost unpayable by the average Cuban
Likewise, they allude, without specifying it, to the discomfort caused by the prices established at the end of May: “Etecsa reiterates its commitment to the search for solutions to overcome current challenges, working hand in hand with the people, supporting education and the construction of the Cuban digital society.” The new rates provide for “extra” plans in dollars at a cost unpayable by the average Cuban: 3 GB for 3,360 pesos, 7 GB for 6,720 pesos and 15 GB for 11,760 pesos.
The more than 100 comments on Cubadebate spoke for themselves. Arturo Hernández Valle stated: “My retirement is not enough to eat, let alone buy, with my pension of 1,528 pesos, a similar plan of 1,200. Nor the other ’basic’ plan. Please! If Etecsa is losing, we retirees are lost.”
Ibrahim pointed out: “I think neither of the two offers solves anything. For the first, they multiply by 10 the plan of 120 pesos for 2 GB. I think it’s still a mockery of the people if we take into account the purchasing level of our wages according to the spiral of rising prices of food and basic necessities, which the State has not been able to control. The second one benefits only a sector of the population and does not include the rest of the professionals in this country who need the internet to work and can’t get recharges from abroad.”
“Do they really call that an improvement”? wrote Alejandro
“It’s a joke, right? 2 GB for 1,000 CUP? Do they really call that an improvement?” wrote Alejandro, who pointed out that the students of the Central University of Las Villas have not been contacted “at all,” and the professors “less.” The rest of the population has been hit by a bolt of lightning.” Lemon added, “They do not realize that 2 GB is nothing.”
User Sachiel observed: “It turns out that Etecsa, after approving the measures and implementing them without 30 days’ notice, now reaches an agreement with the students, who depend on their parents’ salary to approve measures, rates and packages.”
Many of the messages were answered by employees of Etecsa – who called themselves Layla or Lara – somewhat automatically: “We continue to advance in the configuration of the lists and update the ownership of the mobile service in the universities. As this process is completed, each student will be notified by an SMS,” they replied to Alejandro.
For his part, ‘Machete Afilao’ said: “It is still cheaper to buy it on the street, where they sell you a pack of 6 GB for 1,000 or 1,500 pesos and every time you want, not this scam of 2 GB for 1,200 pesos. I think sometimes that these people underestimate the intelligence of the Cuban people.”
‘Machete Afilao’ said: “It’s still cheaper to buy it on the street “
This is a practice that the Government has already warned will have legal consequences. This Wednesday, the spokesman of the regime, Humberto López, gathered guests from the Ministry of the Interior, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the telecommunications monopoly Etecsa on the Hacemos Cuba site, to threaten anyone who participates in “frauds.” They can be accused of the crime of “sabotage,” one of the most serious in the Penal Code.
The most common way to operate in these cases is that a family member abroad buys a recharge through some site where he finds lower prices than those offered by Etecsa. These offers are simultaneous to those announced by the state monopoly with special promotions for recharges from abroad -with benefits such as free night browsing or unlimited WhatsApp, among others – which invites the buyer to believe that the family member in Cuba will receive these advantages. However, they say, the owner of the site keeps the hard currency and deposits the money or balance to an intermediary account on the Island to make the refills in national currency.
According to the explanation of Colonel Marcos Giovanni Rodríguez González, second head of the specialized body dealing with crimes against the economy, networks usually involve “people who have a license as a telecommunications agent of Etecsa,” which allows them to make numerous recharges in national currency without the constraints of customers. At the price of the US currency in the informal market – 370 pesos, they admitted in the program – the recipient of the foreign currency needs only one dollar to make, for example, three refills of 110 pesos.
“They were taking fewer dollars, but only and exclusively because they wanted him to keep taking 25”
In Cuba, the population has a very different view of what the authorities consider “fraud,” and they think that the scam is actually committed by the telecommunications company. “They charge the dollar at 25 pesos, but the dollar is over 370,” explained a user on X. “To avoid being scammed by Etecsa many people began to create a business that, from abroad, could put 20 dollars in their foreign account, and I, from here, use Transfermobile to give you 6.000 Cuban pesos’ worth of recharge on your cell phone.”
His interlocutor asked: “Then it was better to recharge from Cuba with Cuban pesos than from outside. That is, they were really taking fewer dollars?” And he said, “They were taking fewer dollars, but only and exclusively because they wanted him to keep charging 25 dollars and ripping off buyers from abroad. No one is more at fault than Etecsa. That scam benefited from crumbs taking the dollar at 25 when it trades at 15 times that price.”.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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