Venezuela unveils world's cheapest mobile'

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela unveils world's cheapest mobile'
AFP
6 March 2009

VENEZUELA is to start selling in May a mobile phone it is billing as one of the world's cheapest: a $US14 ($21.57) handset that includes an MP3 player, radio and camera.

President Hugo Chavez unveiled the phone - named "El Vergatario" - today, saying it would be produced by a joint Venezuelan-Chinese firm and marketed across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The firm, Vetelca, is 85 per cent controlled by Mr Chavez's government, with the remainder owned by ZTE of China.

Vetelca plans to make four million of the units per year in association with another Chinese company, Huawei.

Other cheap handsets are being developed around the world aimed at the huge market of poorer consumers unable to afford the iPhones and Nokias favoured in wealthier countries.

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