It may not have the glam or the flash of the
Samsung Blue Earth, but
ZTE's Coral-200-Solar takes solar power to a side of the market that needs it far, far more urgently -- the side without power outlets. The Chinese manufacturer is teaming up with Jamaica's Digicel Group to roll out one of the world's first mass-market solar cellphones to folks with "limited or no access to the power grid," which represents some 2 billion people around the globe. The phone gets its juice via an integrated solar charger -- that is, there's still a battery lurking in there, you just don't need an outlet to charge it -- and should be available by June of this year. Pretty amazing world we live in where people have mobiles before they have power, isn't it?
posted Feb 13th 2009 3:56PM
Where's Mr. Voorhees?
Turn around.
No Jason mask here...
Isn't the Jason mask (or part of it) in the reflection on the left side of the screen on the far left image?
Not looking hard enough!
...or are you?
How are people supposed to sign up for the phone service in the first place?
Also, if nobody else around them has power, who are they supposed to call?
It's a pay by the minute system.
If they don't have electricity, how do they power the cell towers every couple of square miles? Or are the cell towers also solar?
Maybe it's easier to get power to a cell phone tower every couple of miles than to wire up everyone in that several square mile region.
Diesel generators.
A generator would cost the phone user less than the cell service contract.
I think I would rather have electricity than a cell phone. A laptop with a cellular or satellite data connection maybe. Or indoor plumbing.
"If they don't have electricity, how do they power the cell towers every couple of square miles? Or are the cell towers also solar?"
Maybe. Solar-powered satellite phones have existed in remote parts of Australia for many years (I think they are mostly positioned along highways for people to use if they break down).
if a wiimote and a samsung had sex...
Awesome...this is perfect for a lot of places, especially if it will let them connect to the internet too. Modern culture and up to date information can be spread to lots of areas that don't have it ^_^
Now if I could get one as a camping phone...
Mobile? What are we, British?
yeah but its no iphone, amirite paul chapel or ieye, huh? yeah
Living in jamaica it is not out of the ordinary to see poeple rolling around with the latest phones while at the same time begging on the side of the road...
When it comes to the power grid it is quite shotty especially once you start to get outside of the major cities (MoBay / Negril / Ocho Rios / Kingston) but being a place where the sun is almost always shining year-round this device would really come in handy.
On this island people's phone are their connection to the world, especially if you live in the hills where most people dont have a land-line...Digicel has been the driving force for most of the carribean because of their expremely competitve pricing and pre-paid cards...so I guess it makes sence that they have commisioned this device ;O)
I absolutely agree. I live in Haiti, and the same applies. Not to mention the fact that the Digicel Foundation gives money to projects around the country. I work for an NGO that recently got contracted to drill numerous wells for schools that they paid to have built.
Nice to hear an intelligent comment Rasta :-)
Thanks for the comment...its always nice to hear about the good work that is being done throughout the Caribbean :O)
i'd also like to just iterate that in the Caribbean, life and the way we do things is completely different. while there are still places that don't have mainstream electricity, it's not as if we're talking about developing a solar phone for indigenous communities or something. people make the trek into the nearest towns to buy their weekly/monthly top up on their prepaid phones and that's just the way it is.
now more people will be able to have mobile access and they'll probably do the same too. i'm from the Cayman Islands and personally, i'm a LIME (Cable & Wireless) customer but this is really good to see, especially since i have family in Jamaica who will find this useful!
maybe it'll surface here at Digicel Vanuatu
Great article from Forbes on Digicel's founder Denis O'Brien and how he has taken the 3rd world mobile phone business by storm, cracking government monopolies in the furthest corners of the planet.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0811/072.html
During my deployments we deal with the same shit - every dickhead has a cellphone but nobody has more than 4 hours of electricity per day. Truly an amazing place (sarcasm)
^^^ during my deployments to IRAQ - just wanted to point that out before i get flamed...
Won't heating the battery cause it to explode? I mean, putting the phone under direct sunlight may charge the phone but make it like super hot and then, possibly, kaboom...
People leave their phones on their dashboards all time and don't have any problems so I don't think so, if the phone does go "kaboom" the cause is more likely to be the fact that coral phones are generally rubbish.
We have electricity in Jamaica, even in the rural areas , not sure where Rasta321 lives but maybe u need to get out more, the people that live in "the hills" would already have electricity and cell phones, and Ochi and Negril are towns
There is very little in the way of technology that is not here, the only problem would be wider distribution, oh and yes we have the internet too
Jamaica obviously has some similarities to Fiji! At Solargex (http://www.solargex.com.fj) we are always looking for ways to assist in areas where the 'grid' power is unreliable or too expensive.
It seems that most commentators think of Africa (maybe South America) when discussing solar pv energy needs.
Fiji. Samoa. Cook Islands. Vanuatu. Papua New Guinea. Tonga.
Pacific Islands suffer from expensive and poor quality electrical grid supplies.
Phones with a built-in solar panels (and this is not a very new idea: there have been a few models previously) are a convenient and sensible option.
Solargex
Observations & facts:
Phone will likely only offer talking, no multimedia/internet capabilities or features. Will get real hot from term exposure & immediate handling after exposure will be the challenge, not to mention potential circuitry damage/components from longterm thermal exposure. Small panel & looks like amorphous (6-8% eff max) Maybe will provide 30-40 mA's per hour, so I gurantee won't be much of a power provider for remote users for sure! And they know the solar factor will be minimally useful so it's likely the phones real power will be from its DC port for recharging the phones battery (although they say solar only), which they will conveniently mention "additional charging capability" upon official product market release.
Buyer beware of the marketing hype!