Conflict Minerals: The Phone Co-Op Offers UK's First Ethical Smartphone

Oct 15, 2014 | The Guardian
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The Fairphone, the first smartphone to be marketed as being free of “conflict minerals”, has arrived in the UK this week, after the Phone Co-op inked an exclusive distribution deal for the new technology.

The Phone Co-op is the UK’s only consumer-owned mobile phone operator, offering a range of services through its Co-operative Mobile, Co-operative Business Telecoms, and Co-operative Phone and Broadband brands.

The organisation announced yesterday that it has become the exclusive UK stockist of the Fairphone, which was launched earlier this year following a successful crowd-funding campaign designed to finance the development of a new smartphone built to stringent ethical and environmental standards.