The Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) launched this Friday a new version of its Transfermóvil application through which Internet packages may be purchased without limitations, upon payment in dollars.
Payments can be made from the MiTransfer exchange, the main novelty of the new update of Transfermóvil, and which is nothing more than a virtual money account associated with a mobile number, which can be recharged and operated without the need for data other than the number user’s phone number.
MiTransfer allows you to have two rechargeable accounts -one in dollars and the other in Cuban pesos- within the Transfermóvil application (regardless of bank cards), so that users can make payments for services and purchases of products from the company that monopolizes the mobile and fixed telephony communications in Cuba.
Customers who want to use this new option must previously register from the Transfermóvil application. Once registered, they will receive an SMS with a four-digit PIN (password) that they must modify with the first use.
“The USD Account creates its balance with recharges from abroad www.bolsatransfermovil.com and, once recharged, the customer will be able to purchase products and pay for telecommunications services such as the promotion of international recharges, combined plans and Nauta Plus ”, specified this Friday the official newspaper Granma.
However, the official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) did not reflect the price in dollars of the unlimited internet packages. Through a tweet, the cell phone company Cubacel indicated that the Nauta PLUS package (with 15 days validity) costs 15 dollarswhile the one with 30 days of validity can be acquired upon payment of 25 dollars.
The greed for foreign currency of the Cuban regime, of which the PCC is a fundamental pillar, seems to cause embarrassment to its ideologues and communicators when it comes to “informing” the people of these “opportunities” that only highlight the injustice suffered by workers. Cubans who are paid in pesos and have no other way to obtain dollars, in addition to highlighting the inequality gap that is spreading among Cubans, encouraged by the ineptitude, greed and indolence of the military, communists and rulers.
The new Nauta PLUS modality allows unlimited Internet browsing while the contracted package is active, which can be valid for 15 or 30 days. In the case of the CUP Account, Granma explained, the balance is created from the recharges of bank cards in CUP from Banco Metropolitano, Bandec and BPA, private or from another person.
With it, you can pay for services and buy products in Cuban pesos, such as telephone bills, mobile balance top-ups, Nauta cards, and make online payments (through face-to-face payment at commercial units). Both accounts will be able to make transfers to other clients who have exchanges with accounts of the same type of currency.
Likewise, transfers will not be limited to a certain amount per day, but will be limited to the maximum limit allowed by each account (CUP Account: 30,000 CUP / USD Account: 1,000 USD). As detailed Granma, “Each transfer will have a cost in the same currency as the account: 0.04 USD and 1 CUP, respectively”.
Nauta Plus can be used in the ETECSA and third-party navigation rooms, such as the Joven Club de Computación, Correos de Cuba, WIFI_Etecsa areas and from the Nauta Hogar service.
As they are non-rechargeable packages, the Nauta PLUS user will have to pay for a new one when the contracted account expires.
At the end of July, ETECSA limited, without prior notice, recharge operations to mobile phones that the users of the island can do through Transfermóvil.
“Transfermóvil is limiting recharging operations to only 2 per day, it seems inadmissible to me that services continue to be restricted. In the end, everything that limits us affects us. This measure is totally contrary to society’s desire to computerize,” he said. complained a user like many others on social networks.
Shortly after, the state monopoly replied that “adjustments were applied to this platform to ensure its best performance.” CyberCuba He tried to contact ETECSA to find out, among other things, why the decision was not notified to customers and whether it was a temporary or definitive measure, but he never received a reply.