Report
The environmental importance of reusing products and extending their useful life has long been recognised. But for mobile phones, there is an equally strong social case for re-use. Second-hand phones lower the cost barrier to entry to the mobile market, and so promote accessibility of the products, especially in less affluent countries. Second-hand mobile phones are an important part of the mobile telephone market in Bucharest. In this Vodafone-funded survey, one in three users on prepay contracts was using a secondhand phone, one in six of all mobile users. This is almost certainly much higher outside of the Romanian capital. Although this report focusses on Romania, there are likely similarities within other countries.