Vodafone 150 and 250 – Aam Aadmi Ki Awaz
Vodafone have announced two of the cheapest phones ever, the Vodafone 150 and 250. The Vodafone 150 harks back to the early days of mobile phones. It can store 100 contacts, has 500mAh battery that lasts 400 hours of standby and 5 hours of talk time. The phone works in 900/1800 MHz GSM networks. It charges through a miniUSB port. Beside that, the Vodafone 150 also supports mobile payment services and has a flashlight on the back.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEYtf-E-fP4[/youtube]
The Vodafone 250 is more, um, advanced. It has a slightly bigger color screen – a 1.45″ CSTN display of 128 x 128 pixel resolution – and is equipped with an FM radio with stereo headset support. The rest of the specs are the same – 500mAh battery, 400 hours standby, 5 hours talk time, miniUSB port, 100 contacts and a flashlight.
The Vodafone 150 and Vodafone 250 will launch first in India and 6 markets in Africa – The DR Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Qatar, South Africa and Tanzania. The Vodafone 150 costs 15 US dollars (11 euro) unsubsidized and the Vodafone 250 is priced at 20 US dollars (15 euro).
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February 26th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Interesting initiative from Vodafone, though in South Africa the cost of a phone is not the problem it’s the cost of calls… The poor are forking out $0.37 a minute while the MD of Vodacom SA (Vodafone) takes home $2.5 million a year! Something needs to be done, fast.
February 26th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
is that for 3G or 2G.
if its 2G then they are bloody looting you guys.
do u get charged for incoming calls in south africa?
February 26th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Nope, the caller pays for the call. 2G and 3G calls cost the same, data charges are also extremely high ($0.26/MB). There are four networks that operate here, none have ever offered real competition though. The average person earns about $3.00/hour so these prices are insane.
February 26th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
this is really sad. are there not any contracts or free minutes?
February 27th, 2010 at 9:46 am
there are contracts with free minutes but calls don’t work out that much cheaper, unless it’s a really expensive business contract. our telecoms regulator (ICASA) has been very poor at forcing operators to reduce their prices… plus the ex-minister of communications has been caught sleeping in meetings, more than once! i think the whole problem is that the department of communications holds stakes in some of the telecoms operators so there’s no incentive for them to reduce prices.