BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 Cuba's telephone company is offering expanded direct-dial service for calls
 abroad, no longer requiring callers to go through operators but charging a stiff
 $2.30 per minute for calls to the United States.

 Subscribers who want the new service must put down a $25 deposit, limit their
 calls abroad to $100 per month and pay their long-distance charges in U.S.
 dollars, ETECSA announced in its April bills to customers.

 ETECSA, a joint venture between a government-run firm and Italy's telephone
 company, said the new service would be available only in neighborhoods with
 digital call-switching centers.

 Most of Havana's call-switching centers have been updated to modern digital
 equipment in the past few years. But switching equipment dating as far back as
 the 1930s remains in use throughout Cuba's provinces.

 Until now, virtually all Cubans had to dial operators and request international calls.
 Many suspected that was designed to allow state security agents to listen in on
 their conversations.

 Direct-dial calls abroad were possible only from the few thousand telephones paid
 completely in U.S. dollars -- cellular phones and regular land lines reserved for
 diplomats, business people and journalists.

 Rates for such phones are high, with one foreigner paying $50 a month for local
 calls in a country where the average monthly salary stands at $10. Cuba's lowest
 Internet subscription costs $30 per month.

 One Havana resident who signed up for the new service said he was quoted rates
 of $2.30 per minute to the United States, $3.50 to Latin America, and $5 and
 higher to Europe.

 Most U.S. callers to Cuba pay between 60 cents and $1.30 per minute.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald