Cubans line up for cell phone service

Astorga said she planned to buy about US$65 (euro41) in credit _ enough, she hopes, for three months of very brief conversations.

"You can't talk all day because it's too expensive," she said. "It's only, 'hello, I'm here. Goodbye.' Or 'where are you?' and hang up."

Teenagers and college students with expensive sunglasses and fashionable clothes dominated the lines, alongside the occasional elderly housewife or construction worker with dusty boots and threadbare T-shirt.

Inside stores, Cubans showed ID cards to sign contracts and crowded around glass cases where cell phones rotated under bright lights. A basic Nokia Corp. model offering little more than calling and text-messaging cost about US$75 (euro47), while a snazzier camera-phone retailed for US$280 (euro175) _ more than twice than in the U.S.

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

But Monday's waits were longer than normal _ and everyone who turned up wanted a cell phone contract.