Private Home Phones

 Private phones were usually available only to the upper class. Up until the phone

companies privatized service in 2001, there were 25 lines for fifty households, with private

service available only in the town of San Pedro Pinula. These households tended to be upper

class Ladinos who coveted their private lines and rarely let anyone outside the family use them.

Due to the imbalance between the number of phones and the number of lines, it was common for

a person to pick up the phone and not get a dial tone until someone else in town finished their

own call. Further, this created a situation in which one could eavesdrop on others' phone

conversations.

Community Pay Phones

 Prior to the advent of cell phones in 2003, most lower class Ladinos and all urban and rural

Maya could communicate with migrants in the United States or in Guatemala's capital city solely

through the use of community pay phones. Known also as comunitarios, communal phones are

simply lines owned by middle and upper class Ladinos who make them available to the public

for a fee. Often situated in storefronts or in the front room of a private house, communal phones

frequently consist of a flimsy cardboard booth which houses the phone and a single chair, with

the space adjacent to the booth serving as the waiting area for those hoping to make or receive

calls.

 While the comunitarios provide a needed service, frequent service irregularities prove

problematic for transnational couples who require a regular and reliable way to communicate

with each other. Further, for the rural Maya, making a trip to the town to make or receive a

phone call at the comunitario can be an all day event. Some Maya make phone calls as part of

their market day or as an in-town errand, but since the comunitarios are especially busy during

these peak periods, many prefer to make a separate trip just for calls. Additionally, the process of