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Here’s something I missed at CTIA: American gadget maker Hop-on was showing a disposable GSM phone. To save on costs, the model doesn’t have an LCD screen. It seems like a gimmicky enough idea, at least gimmicky enough for a distributor to put in an order for a 10,000-phone test run. However, don’t expect the $20 phone to be in America anytime soon.

Why do I say this? Because our government is already looking into prepaid phone restrictions. The concern is that drug dealers and gang members use prepaid phones and then dispose of them, as to not be traced. Adding a cheap, throw-away phone is only going to worsen things in that regard.

Even so, the only U.S. options are AT&T and T-Mobile. That would cut off Hop-on from many prepaid MVNOs, the bulk of which run off the Sprint network.

There’s also no word regarding the battery situation in these phones. If you manufacture disposable phones, people are going to, well, dispose of them. As has been a loud topic of discussion lately, it’s not exactly good environmental practice to dump cell phones in landfills. Maybe with a superb recycling program, it would work…

Posted By : Joe
Posted at : April 14th, 2008 - 9:30 am
Filed under : Prepaid Phones