Seeing a Cuban speaking on his cell phone is still an unusual sight in the streets of Havana.

Two months ago Cubans were allowed to own a cell phone for the very first time after Cuban president Raul Castro eased restrictions on phone ownership. And, yet, Cubacel - Cuba’s one and only cell phone operator - has less than 10,000 subscribers.

Why so few? Mainly because of prohibitive communication costs. In Cuba the average monthly salary is about 20 US dollars, and a short call abroad can easily cost five dollars. Moreover, as they await long overdue economic reforms, owning a cell phone is far from being top-priority for the Cuban people. More freedom is what they want. That’s also the recurrent statement from the long-time enemy next door.

Last May US President George W. Bush changed US policy so as to allow his fellow citizens to send cell phones into Cuba, arguing that this would facilitate communication between the two countries. The problem is that American cells operate on a different system and do not work in Cuba. In other words, Washington has lost the first round in this “battle of the cell phones”.

But the majority of Cubans are worlds away from this media stir; they believe the winds of change won’t be coming from the US but from Cuba itself.