Coral-200 is designed as a candybar-shaped phone solar phone. Zte’s goal with the coral-200 is to provide a low-cost phone to those that normally don’t have access to the electric grid, but will surely be used by those who do. “we are confident,” said xiong hui, “that the digicel coral-200 is an innovative product and that solar power technology can be used in any type of handset which will help millions of consumers worldwide to use mobile phones more conveniently, especially as the technology is more environmentally friendly.  This type of phone will work well in Liberia.  While in Liberia, I received a free solar charger with multiple plugs for various cell phones.  The day I tested it was a very cloudy day.  It took about 4 hours but my phone did get a full charge just placing it in the window.  ZTE is the provider of telecommunication equipment for LIBTELCO – Liberia’s only local telephone operator.  Contact them and post your comments here if they have any idea what you are talking about.  ZTE is hoping to leverage the Coral-200’s low cost to distribute this phone to the 2 billion people that do not have regular access to the grid. To do so, they have partnered with Digicel, a network provider that works in emerging markets and already provides solar powered chargers in some countries. The phone officialy launches in June. I will find out where this phone can be purchased and post it on my blog soon. We need to push our service providers to provide products and services that make sense for the market and the end users.  Here are some pictures of the phone.

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