Mobile phone - birthright of every world citizen!

I agree. A phone became essential infrastructure in many western countries decades ago. Some countries have been giving free 'receive only' landline phones for more than a decade. Mobiles are far cheaper than landlines to deliver that's why they're so big in the emerging nations.

Being in the mobile phone identity and transaction business and lobbying governments to use it as an ID verification device I have been suggesting that it would be cheaper for governments to give them away just to save costs delivering government services and to prevent ID theft and fraud. The number isn't the answer for the ID thing though, we must be able to change them if we want and alone it isn't secure.

We are well into a project which will see us giving away a large number of mobiles and there are several choices in the $20 range which can do the job. Instead of ATM machines dishing out cash we plan vending machines giving mobiles away for free.

In the UK the government would have to be more than negligent if they tried to foist an card based ID solution on people, it won't work, isn't popular and is a waste of money. Australia just tried and it helped the government out the door. It'll be the same for Brown in the UK. The US is also trying but will fail too.

61 million Britons already have a mobile and there are more than 3.3 billion globally. Why would you buy 3.3 billion dumb 'smart cards' and all those readers when you don't have to - only someone receiving a bribe by an interested party would even argue it. 

Knowing secure ID and safe transactions are practical on every single one of those 3.3 billion mobile phones and the most basic $20 ones coming out represents possibly the biggest opportunity in history (which we are poised to take advantage of and we're currently scaling up to capacity for billions of transactions).  I'm planning to give away millions of mobiles. Anyone is welcome to join in and save me a few dollars.

Don't rush out and sell those Nokia shares - even more people will buy the fancy models but the low end ones will disappear from their catalogues within months.

I expect they'll soon be paying us to give away phones with their logo on just to get their brand in your hands for when you upgrade later.

The recession is turning out to be even better for us than I could have imagined - it also signals the end of 'smart cards' - they were a dumb idea from the very beginning.

Interesting. One potential problem is we don't yet know the long term effects of mobile phone use on the population - particularly the young. I think it's a little worrying that they're being sold to young children. The other potential issue is that the networks haven't been terribly resilient in times of genuine emergency (when they really are needed) or mass celebration - New Years eve for example. Of course a technical solution may be found to both these possible stumbling blocks. And I must admit - I'd be stuck without mine.

No, IMHO it is completely wrong for the United Nations to pass a resolution requiring every country to issue mobile phone to its citizens (it would never happen either). Why?

The passing of a UN resolution is no guarantee that the resolution will happen, there are more important resolutions that have been ignored. It's probably not even legal according to the UN charter. Would Sriram like the UN to require him to spend say 10% of his income on something I dream up? If so then please let me know and I will point you at the web site for several charities.

Countries and people should have the right to decide how they spend their money.

In some countries there is a lack of the most vital things Water, Food, shelter .... .. a  mobile comes and a long way down the list. Are you suggesting clockwork phones? since many people have no access to electricity.

The only way you can get everyone a mobile phone is to make it profitable for someone to do it, even if you do make a law, which probably couldn't be enforced. 

If everyone needs one it makes it a lot easier to demand that they are made safe.
One could question whether RFID transmitter/receivers everywhere are good for your health, and the mountain of billions of dead smart cards every few years is another hazard. At least we use something which 3.3 billion people already have and billions more will buy regardless of whether there are smart cards or not.

For safety and good sense we designed a system to use the least possible resources which also means minimal time using the phone.

As for the wind up phone, I own several wind up LED torches and lanterns which I can also plug my mobile into to charge it. I don't know how long I'd have to wind to fully charge my phone but I have used it to get my phone working for a couple of calls while sailing and the lantern works for an hour with a 1 minute wind. It cost about $8 if I recollect, add $20 for a mobile phone and all you need is a solar powered tower nearby. No electricity.

In the early years in Australia and South Africa children would pedal a generator to get education via radio. I think I'd be happy to peddle to get mobile phone and internet internet access in the outback. In a school classroom of 20 children the children would have to peddle for about 16 minutes each to have access all day. Perhaps we should make it compulsory in US, UK, and Australian schools to set an example and tackle childhood obesity, which is already slowly killing more kids than anything else.

I'm all for the global ID and happen to have the only practical mobile solution for that.