Can you imagine living without a cell phone at this point? They're built into every part of our lives now. Many people don't even have land lines anymore, and it's hard to imagine what an urban culture without mobile communication would look like. But actually, such a place does exist: Cuba. Only 2% of its citizens have cell phones. Even that number is actually a big stride.

For years Fidel Castro's government in Cuba made cell phones available only to foreigners and dignitaries, but earlier this year his brother and successor Raúl finally made them available to the public — at a price far above the average Cuban's monthly income. Last month, prices were cut in half to $58 for the bare-bones Nokia 1112 and $65 for activation. However in Cuba, one of the last remaining communist states (and a country kept in economic depression by a trade embargo by the United States), the average worker earns only $21.44 per month, so many save for months to be able to buy one of these luxuries.

Once they buy them, they hardly use them. Local calls cost 65 cents per minute, and a long distance call to Europe goes through at $5.85 per minute. Text messaging, however, is very popular, and the phones are used like pagers; a call is placed, a number is left, but no one does any talking.

Still, according to an article in the Washington Post, the flood gates are opening as much as they can in a place like Cuba, and the culture will soon be transformed just like North America and Europe have been over the past 20 years. Puts that decision between the iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile G1 in perspective, doesn't it?

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