Nokia agrees to investigate handset explosion reports - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Nokia agrees to investigate handset explosion reports

By Andrew Colley, 0
October 14, 2003
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Nokia-agrees-to-investigate-handset-explosion-reports/0,130061791,120279439,00.htm

Nokia has responded to a request by Dutch consumer authorities to investigate two reports that handsets built by the company exploded, injuring their owners.

The Finland-headquartered phone maker said it would comply with a request by a Netherlands consumer protection body, Consumentenbond, and conduct an investigation into the incidents.

The request came after Dutch supermarket employee received burns to his leg when his Nokia mobile phone exploded in his pocket. It was the second such incident in as many months. In August a Dutch woman believed to be in her 30s received facial injuries when her Nokia-manufactured handset exploded spontaneously.

The issue is not new for Nokia, which has consistently laid the blame for the problem at the feet of its customers.

In February, Nokia announced that it had identified what it described as an "overheating problem" in handsets powered by grey-market imitations of its batteries.

According to Nokia, the counterfeit batteries sold on the street and over the Internet lack circuitry that protects authentic Nokia batteries from over heating. Reports of incidents in which Nokia handsets were damaged in overheating incidents increased sharply early this year prompting the phone maker to issue a warning to consumers.

"People really shouldn't use anything but a Nokia-made battery inside any of our phones," said a Nokia spokesperson at the time. "If a third-party battery is made improperly and destroys a phone, it's not going to be covered under warranty."

Nokia maintained that a non-original battery was the cause behind the incident in August this year.

However, a spokesperson for the Dutch regulator said the company had run out of excuses for its inaction, claiming that the latest victim of the problem was using an authentic Nokia approved battery in his mobile phone.

A spokesperson for Nokia Australia said the company would not provide further comment on the matter until after the company had completed its investigation.