Currency crisis has Venezuelans struggling to call abroad

Venezuelans are struggling to call abroad as telephone carriers fall behind on payments to international partners amid a currency crisis that is leaving the country increasingly cut off from the rest of the world.
The South American nation's largest private telephone operator, Movistar, quietly ended service to all but 10 countries in May.
The other major private operator here, Digitel, cut service to more than 100 countries around the same time, and later told congress it was tens of millions of dollars in debt to foreign providers.
The changes have not been formally announced. Instead, Venezuelans are making the unhappy discovery when they dial an international number and bump into an ominous pre-recorded error message.

Caracas shopkeeper Wilmer Ruiz realised last week that he couldn't call his family in Cuba or a friend who immigrated to Ecuador. Both countries have been staunch allies of Venezuela's 16-year socialist revolution.
"We're just falling behind the rest of the world in every way," Ruiz said.

Internet calling services like Skype go only so far toward resolving the issue. Many people do not have easy access to WiFi, so they have to rely on cellphone data packages that can be prohibitively expensive.
And pay-as-you-go services that allow for cheap calls to cellphones over the Internet require a foreign credit card, which most Venezuelans do not have.

Telephone carriers may ultimately start charging in dollars. This month, Movistar representatives approached the Indian Embassy and offered to restore international service if the organisation switched to a contract paid in dollars, said a diplomat who insisted on anonymity because he did not have authorisation to discuss the issue.
The phones are just the latest things to go as currency rationing cuts Venezuela off from global trade.
Foreign airlines have abandoned the country over the past year because of Venezuela's limits on repatriating profits.
Last year, the state-run postal service indefinitely suspended international mail deliveries. In the spring, the government slashed the amount of local currency citizens are allowed to convert into dollars when they travel abroad to as little as USD 300, essentially blocking vacations for anyone who cannot afford to buy currency on the black market.