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Telecom is hugely profitable, mobile telecom even more so.

Could you provide some data to support that statement? Not that I think the roaming charges are reasonable (since they are completely disconnected from actual costs for the operators), but that would just mean that domestic charges should go up and international/roaming rates should go down.

Look for example at the Vodafone annual report (big PDF), income statement on page 96. On 38 bn UK pounds annual revenue, the made 5 bn loss (before taxes, not including the profitable sale of their stake in Verizon).

Or the T-mobile US numbers on 2014 (full year). Page 6: US$ 14 bn revenue; net income US$ 0.25 bn. That does not look like a hugely profitable business to me. Or the balance sheet on page 5: US$ 57 bn assets, and only US$ 16 bn of stockholder's equity; a ratio of 3.6:1, which I'd consider pretty large for a company that is not making a large profit and that has to deal with rapidly depreciating infrastructure.

Here's Verizon 2014 full year: US$ 127 bn revenue, US$ 12 bn net income. That looks more healthy. But look at the balance sheet: US$ 232 bn assets, and just US$ 14bn in equity (16:1 ratio). I would be very hesitant to invest in a company with such a balance sheet. To my surprise, the stock market thinks differently with a P/E of 21.

I'm not a finance expert, so if I misinterpret the numbers, please correct me.

Well, Vodafone do, so I wouldn't be surprised if Verizon do given that Vod own a large chunk of VZW

In my country Kenya (that's spelt A-F-R-I-C-A for all you americans reading this). We have a service called M-PESA that allows for such functionality - you can basically pay anyone (person or business) that has an M-PESA account. Heck, you can even withdraw money from an ATM using just your cellphone. It goes without saying that all this is done without fancy 3g phones. look here: http://www.vodafone.com/start/media_relations/news/group_press_releases/2007/safaricom_and_vodafone.html

As one /.'er said about the Microsoft Surface "if only it fitted in my shirt pocket.."

Wow the iPhone has cameras inside it that can see your fingers touch the screen, and see objects that are set next to it? OMG that is freaking revolutionary!

Oh, wait, NVM, it is just a freaking touch screen capable of sensing a couple points at the same time, wow, that is something out of the 80s, I love the new retro technology movement at Apple.

So a phone that you can touch in a couple places, that is out---. Oh wait, I can do that aready with my freaking RAZR, they are called BUTTONS, and I can press several at the same time. I also can store 8GB of Music and Video and Watch REAL BROADBAND TV broadcasts and access the internet at near DSL speeds. Wake me up when Apple catches up.

Actually I'm not being fair, my RAZR only cost $40 bucks with renewal, we should compare the iPhone to other products in its price class.

Here is a touch screen Phone with a keyboard that is from sometime last year or older, has everything from Bluetooth to WiFi, and can buy music online using WMP or be used as a portable media player for Video and music. (PS you can run custom apps on it, and even remote desktop to your home or office computer on the screen.)

http://www.business.vodafone.com/site/bus/public/e nuk/products/smartphones/40_sp_range/60_htc/70_v16 05/70_specs/p_specification.jsp

PS The reason I had this link handy is that some of my friends at EDS in Europe were showing me the phones they have been using for quite a while and how absurd the whole iPhone thing is to them.

Is it me, or only non-techs and Mac users the ones that think the iPhone is great? I would say the iPhone is special, but only in reference to a short bus...

Here's an even better one, a "VGA+" display at 690x480. http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/foma/903i/n903i /topics_01.html .

Yes, these are of course Japanese phones, and Japanese phones are for some reason much more advanced than western phones. When I was there for a year I had a phone with a QVGA display, that is half of the amount of pixels the iPhone has, and it was free with the plan, which was 2400 yen a month (about $20 I guess) with a one-year contract. That's with included minutes and traffic, which I for the most part didn't exceed. Oh, I should mention that this was three years ago. Now, I like Apple (I have a MacBook and an iPod as proof), but the iPhone didn't impress me much. :(

When a hard drive fails, or the memory card is erased or misplaced, or when a future computer can no longer read today's media, our culture becomes a little more forgetful, and a little more forgotten. The consequence of our technological advancement is that, centuries from now, historians may well look back on our time as a type of dark age. Compared to earlier generations, very little of our cultural history is being recorded so that it will actually exist into the future. We will literally be a forgotten culture, because those who will come after us will have technologically "forgotten" how to read, or even locate, our ephemeral artefacts. If we want to be remembered at all, we must additionally create artefacts that will travel through time, as the writings, art, and photographs of our forebears have come to us.

Vodafone has just released a series of phones that meet the majority of your requirements.
Not sure about the really, really tough and there not really, really small.
Vodafone has a partnership with Verizon, so they may become available in the US in the future. Read about it here http://www.vodafone.com/article/0,3029,CATEGORY_ID %253D504%2526LANGUAGE_ID%253D0%2526CONTENT_ID%253D 258796,00.html?
and Vodafone New Zealand has more details http://www.vodafone.co.nz/mobiles/simply/index.htm l

Considering that Kenya's population has only 5 mobiles per 100 people, I'm not so sure "every one of those 54 students' families owns at least one." If they do, you can be sure plenty of them are being shared by their entire families, many by two or more families at once, particularly in rural areas (like where this school is). A handset becomes a lot less useful when you have to share it with others--you can't take it with you to the market, you can't send or receive SMSes privately, it's a crapshoot whether or not you'll reach the person you want, etc. It still helps, but it could be a lot better.

The GSM infrastructure and regulatory framework is better in Kenya than much of the rest of Africa, but even Kenya desperately needs more (and more affordable) mobile phones.

BTW, I don't work for any mobile carrier or company, I'm just interested in this stuff.

I have always wanted to build a cell phone into an old heavy duty phone handset. Those have space for a huge battery and you could put in a nice speaker and microphone so that the sound quality would be good.

The Vodafone Simply is the phone you seek. It seems that despite all the screaming for a basic and reliable phone, cell phone providers continue to add new unrequested features and then try to generate a market for those features. It seems that the only provider that is listening to its customers is Vodafone.

Buttons that are large enough to push just one at a time.
No camera's, games, TV remote controls, toasters or any other useless crap.
Fits against your ear, doesn't get lost in your ear.
It's a revolutionary cell phone.

Your other alternative is to get a used phone from eBay.

Japan has had both streaming TV video and TV tuners for years now as has Korea.

Vodafone has generally had TV tuner phones where as AU has streaming phones. On AU, any of the phones labeled "WIN" are phones that can stream. They support 2.4megabit data reception and you can signup for unlimited use for $38 a month although currently only for use on the phone (video streaming, web, email). If you plug it into your computer then it's metered.

where there is no one dominating operating system?

XHTML-MP+SVGT11 Recommendations

1 MP.. big deal? There's been a 2 MP camera-phone out in Japan for 5 months (with a Fuji-developed sensor and lens) and a 1 MP camera-phone for over a year. This isn't exactly ground-breaking technology news. :/

http://www.vodafone.com/flash/futures/

Warning: Flash site.

Wouldn't SCO go after the world's largest cellphone company?

> when I tell friends who really owns T-Mobile, more than one has decided they'd like to go with a domestic provider, even if it's not my employer.

What's wrong with a German-owned wireless company? If there was any other provider in the US besides VZW who had acceptable coverage levels, I would consider going with T-Mobile just as much as with another carrier (except Satan's-spawn Cingular, which has earned "Most Unfavored Carrier" status in my opinion, for its abysmal network).

Besides, VZW is 44.3% owned by Vodafone, which is incorporated in the UK.

I guess my point is, how is doing business with a your average American company more desirable than with a your average German company? If either company can be proven "evil" somehow, then that taints the equation totally, but if neither is particularly bad, what's the problem? I mean, judging from the take on the current German economy from the posts in this thread, they need the business a lot more than our fat CEOs need another bonus check.

Since you're probably in America, I'd go look for your local vodafone partner, and see if they offer a similar service. http://www.vodafone.com/ would be the place to start looking.

Note One of the more intresting part were the erotic story under the Vizzavi icons: pictures are scaled exactly to the device size (iPAQ and Trium eclipse were the one that looked better).

If this is just the start I'm wondering what this Service Delivery Platform will bring... anyone from Vodafone reading that can disclosure something?