A smartphone that is carrier and vendor-independent and enables you to make and receive secure phone calls and video chats, exchange secure texts as well as transfer and store files might have been a dream just months ago, but an upcoming "Blackphone" that will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on Feb. 24 might be all that and even more.

Blackphone is the baby product of a Switzerland-based joint venture between Silent Circle and Geeksphone. The project is backed by several important figures in the fields of computer security, including Phil Zimmermann, creator of data encryption protocol PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).

It's interesting to see the two companies coming together; Silent Circle is a US-based company focused on encryption, while Geeksphone is a Spanish company behind Firefox OS developer devices.

Mashable.com quotes Silent Circle's CEO Mike Janke as saying that the project will be "open source all the way," including the Android OS build that the phone will run on.

"Blackphone provides users with everything they need to ensure privacy and control of their communications, along with all the other high-end smartphone features they have come to expect," said Zimmermann.