This cleverly packaged ‘free lunch’ from 8ta looks exactly like how I picture the little black box looks like in a Boeing 747. You know; the one they search for after a plane crash.

Open the black plastic lunchbox and inside is an 8ta-branded Huawei G2101 mobile phone (with charger and earphones) and an 8ta sim card. For this you pay R120 and 8ta also throws in R10 free minutes per month for the next 12 months. They’re calling it “the pre-paid package that pays for itself”. I’m rather mathematically challenged but it looks like a bargain to me. 

Still, I’m not sure what I would do with this dinky phone and its limited functionality? It’s not very exciting, but it certainly has some practical uses...

Like, if you’re a secret agent you could stash one of 8ta’s black lunch boxes in your hidey hole next to your fake passports, and make emergency phone calls while you’re being chased down by assassins! If your day job is not that action-packed, it’s still nice to have one of these 8ta starter boxes around the house if your smartphone was lifted from your bag in the mall.

(Or just put the sim card in your current phone and keep the Huawei in the kitchen drawer, in case of emergency...)

I’ll be testing 8ta’s reception and connectivity in my area (greater Jozi) for the next couple of weeks, and also go low-tech for a few days with the G2101 – I see it has FM radio. I do hope there’s also that old goodie Snake in the games menu, too.