by FFE EU News Staff

Company opens up online portal for Austrians who want to sell their old mobile phones.

Every year around 2.5 million old mobile phones are discarded in Austria, most of them gathering dust in old cupboards at home. But a company is offering a profitable alternative for owners and transactions can now be done online.

Businessman Martin Lehmann’s Upcom Telekom has just opened an online portal that owners can access to valuate and sell their old, unwanted phones. All the seller needs to do is to fill out a form about their phones to get a valuation. The seller then sends the phone through a free envelope to the company, which then verifies the information in the form.

Once the information is confirmed, the company makes an automatic cash transfer to the seller’s bank account.

So where do the old phones go? The company said the phones are then exported to Africa where they are resold. Phones that are sold for over €15 require the seller to provide some personal information to improve security and protect them from criminal activity.

Upcom Telekom has once worked with ORF television and charity group Caritas in a campaign to collect old mobile phones for charity.