Soon to be followed by:
Nokia to recall up to 100,000 GPRS Phones due to Severe Burn risk
By Reuters staff
13 June 2002
Telecoms equipment maker Nokia said on Friday it was recalling up to 100,000 GPRS phones, which enable so called faster connection to the
Internet, as some of them could cause severe burns to users.
Nokia, now the world's 2nd largest maker of mobile phones, said that although it was recalling between 50,000 and 100,000
GPRS phones, less than 0.5 percent of them were believed to actually function, so the risk of burns is reduced.
"The danger of severe burns is very small, but of course one has to take seriously such a risk," said Nokia Networks
spokeswoman Arja Suominen, adding that "so few of our GPRS phones actually work, the number of injuries reported remains low."
Nokia said that users risked having their hands set on fire if they attempted to connect to the internet from the faulty phone while the phone was actually turned on. There is no risk, if the phone is not turned on and the battery back and car battery pack is not connected.
The company said it would repair the faulty phones or in some cases give customers new ones, while phones which
proved to be functioning adequately would be simply returned to customers with the new 100 amp fuse pack.
Suominen declined to say how much the recall would cost but said it would be insignificant in comparison to sales at the
networks division.
We are not too worried said another Nokia spokeswoman, Teroina Sexkitten, in GPRS mode, these suckers only run about 5 seconds before the power runs out, so the risk of actually burning human flesh remains small. Unless of course the user is physically unable to drop the phone. Then residual heat becomes an issue. |
