TechSmec.com

Vodafone Introduces Mobile Phone Vending Machines

October 31st, 2005

Lost your phone and need to make an urgent call? Just arrived in the UK and find that your roaming rights have been revoked? Need to ring totally anonymously so that the police have no idea who made the call that detonated that car bomb or harassed your ex-wife? Vodafone to the rescue with their QuickPhone kiosk!

Yes, Vodafone have unveiled what is, in principle, a great idea, but that has too many potential problems, in the humble opinion of TechSmec.com, to be ethical. The QuickPhone kiosk offers three models between £30 and £60. Additionally, a SIM (subscriber identity module) card-only pack can be brought for £5, just in case you have got your mobile with you but need that instant anonymity. Manchester is the first lucky town to get a dispensing machine, but Vodafone hopes to roll them out in train stations and airports around the country.

“These will be popular with people who need a phone in an emergency, either because they have lost their phone or it has run out of battery,” said a Vodafone spokesman. “They are for people who know what they want and who don’t want to go through the rigmarole of talking to a sales assistant.”

TechSmec.com hopes the machine will use the same corkscrew mechanism as your standard crisp dispenser. We plan on hovering around a QuickPhone kiosk when we see one hoping that someone’s phone got stuck on the way out. A soft kick just there should do it….

Entry Filed under: Mobile