Now here’s an interesting story, from the pages of The Register. You may well remember that one of my favourite phones of the last two years wasn’t a smartphone. It wasn’t even a particularly clever feature phone, since it had no camera, and virtually no other features, at all. But it was as hard as nails; in fact, you could use it to hammer in nails.
Yes, I am of course talking about the JCB TOUGH PHONE.
That phone was actually made by a company called Sonim, who then went on to make the even more hardcase Sonim XP3 (which was actually waterproof), and the upcoming Land Rover S1. Their story has just got a bit more interesting, however, as a famous name from the UK has been attached to them, and has set them a rather tough challenge.
The man: Ranulph Fiennes. The challenge: make him a phone that will work consistently in icy conditions, with temperatures down to -70°C.
That’s pretty bleedin’ cold! The world-famous adventurer has said he’d like to take a Sonim phone with him on his next expedition, but to do that, they need to make one that’ll work in temperatures down to that magic number. But still, if anyone can do it, Sonim can.
It does beg the question, though, of exactly where he’s planning on taking the phone. Temperatures of seventy-below imply either somewhere polar, or somewhere up the top of an enormous, whacking great mountain. You know the one. It’s got the same name as a double-glazing company. But the thing is, he’s just finished a stroll up that big ol’ mountain, which would’ve been the most likely candidate, since mobile coverage is all set to extend up Everest.
So, where might he be going where it gets as cold as -70°C, but where he can get a mobile phone signal??
Now, here’s an interesting thought… in that news story about the Everest mobile network, the system uses mini-cell towers, that have a satellite uplink, back to a standard network. Kind of like a roving cell tower, but that sends out a signal to a satellite, like a sat-phone. What if Sir Ranulph Fiennes is taking one of those with him?
Or, ooh, even more mental idea… what if he’s taking a whole boatload of them down to Antarctica, to set up the first Antarctic mobile phone network?
Alright, granted, it’s probably not that, but it’s still a cool (hahahahaha, cool, geddit…? Oh, please yourself…) idea…
More news (and bad jokes about it being cool) as it happens! And be sure to subscribe now to get all the latest action from the world of mobile phones!