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To date, processes of commodification characterise Cuba’s mobile communications. These surface in the form of an incongruent relationship between the relatively high prices for accessing mobile services, provided by a state-owned company, and the relatively low salaries of the state-employed workers. While criticising state-led commodification, this chapter historicises the emergence of commodification in the particular political and economic contexts of Cuba. Using a Political Economy of Communication framework, the study observes that, on the side of the Cuban state, the commodification of mobile services is a strategy for capturing hard currency that enters domestic circulation mostly in the form of remittances, tourism and foreign enterprises established in the country. Overall, this chapter warns that the state provision of mobile access and services to those who can afford them fuels the growth of social inequalities in Cuba. |
