Can the CAT Mobile Phone survive the South African outdoors ?

“We work hard and we play hard and I need technology that can deal with both” is how Ilan Miller, from Ilan Miller Electrical and Solar, describes his mobile requirements.

I met Ilan on a construction site where he was in the process of managing his team of installers who were busy wiring up yet another  high-value home. This is where I first noticed the reason Ilan has chosen the CAT Mobile phone which is purposefully built for such a hazardous site. Typically a dust proof/ water proof/ shock proof type of phone is an ugly low speced phone shoved into an even uglier case, but this is not the case with CAT Mobile.

The phone is a real smartphone running Android KitKat and just happens to be IP67 rated so that is can deal with water, mud, cement and being constantly dropped. The phone is even able to work during the rain with wet fingers. These are the types of conditions that construction people are expected to work in and this is a tool that is built to be part of their toolbox.

“Other phones don’t last a week on these kind of sites. Its not like we abuse them, but the sites are not clean-office spaces. There are phone hazards everywhere and I can’t tip toe around my site just so that I can make a call. The CAT Mobile phone is just part of my tools just as is my volt-meter and my bakkie”

Where it all hit home was that during the video shoot,  my non-CAT equipment started to absorb dust that was getting into every opening. Something that CAT mobile  phone owners no longer need to worry about.