End of Telcos? A student builds a phone that uses no sim card to communicate!

SImon Petrus – Photo Credit: Africa News

The year 2020 is dying away in style with the vaccine for the virus now out, but it has more surprises for us.

What are the chances for a Grade 12 student in Namibia to invent a sim-less mobile phone that uses radio frequencies to communicate?

I have always thought there should be a way to communicate without using Telco services with a mobile phone, and it is probable that this guy has got the answer.

New Era reports that Simon Petrus, a pupil at Abraham Iyambo Senior Secondary School in Namibia, created the phone using spares from —a phone and television set.

It is complete with a light bulb (we have not heard of bulbs being used in such devices), a fan and a charger socket.

The handset can make calls to anywhere through the use of radio frequencies!

When making a call on a mobile, the first thing the phone does is search for the nearest signal from the base station antenna of its operator and establish a radio link with it. To receive a call, the principle is the same, except that it is the base station antenna that needs to establish the connection.

But our phones have a limitation. We need the sim cards from the greedy telcos to make the calls. This invention, if it gets ahead, will probably mean the death of telcos.

Petrus’ phone is made up of a radio system, is attached to a box, and captures a local TV channel on it.

Petrus claims that he invented the phone in the hopes that it would be successful using money provided to him by his unemployed parents.