The Cuban Telecommunications Enterprise (ETECSA) will include mobile data vouchers in the upcoming international recharge promotions, to support the social isolation measures adopted by the island’s government with the aim of controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.
The executive president of ETECSA, Mayra Arevich, reported on her Twitter profile that in May clients who receive international recharges will also have vouchers for calls and SMS.
https://twitter.com/MayraArevich/status/1253135678331813888
Likewise, the state-owned company that has a monopoly on telecommunications in Cuba will extend until May 30 the payment exemption measures and price reductions applied in April.
Those provisions include the reduction of the price of calls and data packages in mobile telephony between 1:00 and 6:00 in the morning and the 25% discount for national calls made with top-up cards between 6:00 in the afternoon and 5:59 am.
It also established a 50% reduction of the national long-distance rate in the quarantine period, between 6:00 am and 5:59 pm and to 25% from 6:00 pm to 10:59 pm.
Likewise, 10 hours were added to the Nauta Hogar home internet service which, once consumed, maintains a reduction of the additional hours of 0.30 CUC (Cuban convertible pesos) per hour.
The validity of mobile lines, the payment of telephone bills and the Nauta Hogar service, which otherwise would have expired, were also extended until May 30.
Other measures that will remain in force in May are the exemption from the obligation to pay the changed Internet access services for the residential sector, from the payment of the monthly fee of the users of Alternative Land Lines; as well as discounts of 10% of ETECSA service payments made through the Transfermóvil application.
These measures are being taken at a time when Cuba is affected by COVID-19, a disease of which there are already 1,235 positive cases and 43 deaths on the island, and in the face of which the authorities have taken a group of measures to minimize social interaction.
In this situation, many Cubans have asked ETECSA to lower its rates and extend its vouchers, to guarantee greater communication and information about the pandemic, while it has reported an increase in data traffic and a greater use by its clients, which has caused some difficulties in its services.
