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New Delhi, Sept. 3 In an effort to address consumer concerns on the safety of mobile handsets, service providers and handset vendors today urged the Government to formulate guidelines to discourage grey market trading. The move comes close on the heels of Nokia hitting a rough patch with some of its batteries. Nokia detected about 12 cases in India where users complained that the handset battery exploded while charging. Nokia said that almost all the users were using fake or tampered batteries. The handset major had earlier issued an advisory that 46 million batteries could have some manufacturing defects.

According to the Indian Cellular Association (ICA), nearly nine crore original mobile handsets were sold in India in 2007-08 along with the service pack which includes an original battery. However 70-75 per cent of the replacement battery market is still dominated by counterfeits. “Counterfeits are manufactured in extremely poor conditions with manual welding, poor slitting machines, using non-standard coating material. They also lack safety mechanisms such as Protection Circuit Module. Most counterfeits, therefore, deliver very poor performance and may not be safe, said Mr Pankaj Mohindroo, National President, Indian Cellular Association (ICA).

“There is an immediate need for the government to intervene and crack down on the malice of counterfeit mobile accessories and batteries to ensure the safety of consumers.” . According to ICA, out of the Rs 4-4.5 crore battery replacement market, most them are of suspect quality.

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