Ordinary Cubans will be allowed to own cellphones under new measures announced Friday in Havana by President Raul Castro’s government, but it won't be cheap to chat.

A report in the Cuban Communist Party newspaper, Granma, said the state telephone monopoly, ETECSA, would now accept prepaid cellphone contracts from members of the general public, providing they are paid in what are known as Cuban Convertible Pesos — a highly regulated form of the Cuban currency aimed at tourists and foreign residents and worth 24 times the regular pesos that most Cubans receive as salaries.

Previously, only employees of approved foreign companies and Communist Party officials had legal cellphones in Cuba.

Some Cubans outside that rarefied elite had acquired cellphones by having foreigners sign contracts for them, and pay the monthly bills.

The new measure is being seen as a small relaxation of the authoritarian rule of Raul Castro's brother and predecessor, Fidel Castro, who led the island's revolution in 1959 and governed as a strict Communist for nearly 40 years.

Fidel Castro stepped down as Cuba's supreme leader last month after a lengthy illness.

The ETECSA statement said it might allow payment in regular Cuban pesos one day if the new measures bring in more revenue and allow upgrades of technology and the existing network.

Reports from Havana said there was no discernible public reaction to the announcement and ETECSA cellphone outlets were not seeing any particular increase in sales.

With files from the Associated Press