Vodafone UK has deployed two vending machines which will allow panic-stricken and mobileless punters in Manchester to buy a handset with a quid's worth of credit.

The mobilephoneco hopes that its "Quickphone" kiosks will become familiar sights across the UK, telling the Telegraph that they can be installed "anywhere, as long as there is an electricity supply". The machines offer three different phones in return for cash or chip and PIN payments.

A spokesman further expounded: "These will be popular with people who need a phone in an emergency, either because they have lost their phone or it has run out of battery. They are for people who know what they want and who don't want to go through the rigmarole of talking to a sales assistant."

Good show - no longer will the UK's mobile-hungry public have to suffer the hard-sell banter of phone salesmen telling them that what they really want is not a device with which to make telphone calls but rather a 3G überphone with GPS, 8 megapixel camera, bluetooth, sixteen million polyphonic ringtones and a year's subscription to Premiership video highlights: yours for just 500 sovs if you take out the optional but highly recommended extended warranty cover.

Assuming, of course, that the Quickphone machine is designed to withstand the impact of a ram-raiding assault carried out by alcopop-fuelled teens in a nicked Ford Cosworth because, let's face it, a whole aggravation of Asbos will not deter the UK's youth from attempting to acquire a new Voda mobile at the full street discount. ®

Related stories

• Vodafone mobile-dispensing machine: an apology (28 February 2006)
• Vodafone UK deploys mobile-vending machine (24 February 2006)
• Voda logo takes early bath at Man U (23 November 2005)
• Vodafone signs Universal song selection (14 November 2005)
• Voda flogs Swedish operation (1 November 2005)
• Vodafone biffed in 'best bar none' scrap (13 October 2005)
• Voda faces trademark row with PCCW (12 October 2005)
• Vodafone customers suffer mystery number blockage (12 August 2005)