Exploding Phones: Nokia Clarifies Incidents

Recent reports of Nokia phones exploding in eastern India while charging — two incidents within three days — have fuelled fears in the UAE about the same happening over here.

Nokia's office in Dubai confirmed the incidents, but said they may have been due to counterfeit batteries or consumer misuse.

An official said the batteries which exploded were different from those which caused more than 100 overheating-and-dislodging incidents globally, which are the subject of a free-of-cost replacement scheme.

Yolande Pineda, Communications Direc-tor, Nokia Middle East and Africa, said: "Yes, there have been battery-related incidents with Nokia in India, but most do not involve the BL-5C battery, about which Nokia issued an advisory."

Pineda also clarified it was just a replacement advisory.

The advisory stated that "out of more than 300 million BL-5C batteries produced, 46 million manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006 are at risk of overheating".

"In the case of BL-5C, they were not explosions, but battery dislodges," said Pineda.

Of the 100 incidents globally, no serious injuries were reported, she said.

And what about similar incidents happening in the UAE?

"If one uses non-original batteries, one can never say."