Cubans Line Up for Cell Phone Service

Teenagers and college students with expensive sunglasses and fashionable clothes dominated in the lines. But elderly housewives and an occasional construction worker with dusty boots and threadbare T-shirts also waited for the chance to buy.

Lines outside stores are common in Cuba since security personnel limit how many people are allowed in at a time, and phone centers are often especially crowded with Cubans waiting to pay their home phone bills.

But Monday's waits were longer than normal and everyone who turned up was waiting for a cell phone contract.

"I am in need, I need to have one," said Juana Verdez, a retiree who said a cell phone would make it easier to stay in touch with family members.

People also were lining up for cell phones in Santiago, the island's second-largest city, although residents said the lines were not as long as in Havana. Waits were also reportedly shorter elsewhere across the country.

Only foreigners and Cubans holding key government posts were allowed to have cell phones since they first appeared on the island in 1991. Thousands of ordinary Cubans had already obtained mobile phones through the black market, but could activate them only by finding foreigners willing to lend their names to the contracts.

A March 28 announcement by Cuba's state-controlled telecommunications monopoly, a joint venture with Telecom Italia, made it legal for all Cubans to have phones in their own names.