Cubans line up for cell phone service

Lines stretched for blocks outside phone centers Monday as the government allowed ordinary Cubans to sign up for cellular phone service for the first time.

The contracts cost about US$120 (euro76) to activate _ half a year's wages on the average state salary. And that doesn't include a phone or credit to make and receive calls.

But most Cubans have at least some access to dollars or euros thanks to jobs in tourism or with foreign firms, or money sent by relatives abroad. Lines formed before the stores opened, and waits grew to more than an hour.

"Everyone wants to be first to sign up," said Usan Astorga, a 19-year-old medical student who stood for about 20 minutes before her line moved at all.

Getting through the day without a cell phone is unthinkable now in most developed countries, but Cuba's government limited access to mobile phones and other so-called luxuries in an attempt to preserve the relative economic equality that is a hallmark of life on the communist-run island.

President Raul Castro has done away with several other small but infuriating restrictions, and his popularity has surged as a result _ defusing questions about his relative lack of charisma after his ailing older brother Fidel formally stepped down in February.