And a week later, I got a mail piece offering to credit me up to $200 to compensate for the early cancellation fee from my old provider. All I have to do, apparently, is mail them a copy of my early cancellation fee bill.

That doesn't really relate to the equipment, but still pretty cool.

I keep my phone on my desk most days so a solar powered phone would be even cooler.

When I first saw the ads for Credo in our local trasit system, I got all excited and quickly looked up what they offer.

They're hardware options just plain suck, as mentioned in the article, but beyond that, their service plans (I'm currently on a family plan) and their data plans are just plain too expensive. I would be more inclined to move to a green carrier if they charged less green for it.

In fact, my final conclusion was that the difference between what I currently pay for service and what I would pay for 4 phones on Credo would be substantial enough that I should just keep my current carrier and take the extra money I would pay to Credo and donate it to AI myself...

We've had Credo almost a year now. Verizon had lousy service in our neighborhood and my office location so we decided to give this a try. We signed up for a 30 day trial and didn't switch our old numbers right away. The reception was great and I was surprised how well the Katana phones worked for a free phone. The 2 phone plan had the same number of minutes and cost less than Verizon. We made the switch complete and Credo paid the Verizon cancellation fees in full as a credit to our new account. Yes, the only complaint is their data rates. We only send a picture once in awhile but instead of 25 cents each they were over a dollar. Silly. On the other hand, their customer service is soooo great. Everyone I've spoken with was really helpful, fun to talk to, and knew their service and equipment well. That part of it was just a night and day diffference compared to other companies.

the Coltan in the circuitry still comes from the Congo where millions have been slaughter in the African World War over resources.

Sleep tight, peaceniks. Don't let the dreams of rape wars, mutilation and savagery haunt you.

I must point out that maybe 1% of the world's tantalum comes from the Congo (according to the '06 USGS), so your cellphone is not likely to have killed too many people before it got to you.

That said, Credo *is* still using cell phones that by and large will eventually make it into our landfills. Not very green, if you ask me.

They ought to have 5-year contracts that forbid you from upgrading your phone. Or at least have an exchange program when you want to upgrade.