ITU, car makers want phone manufacturers to adhere to hands-free standards

ITU said this is imperative because a test conducted by it recently found that an overwhelming majority of the phones tested would cause shortfalls in the audio quality of hands-free-supported conversations, a concern that automobile manufacturers say could be resolved through greater cooperation from phone manufacturers. In a plea to solve a persistent problem, major […]

ITU said this is imperative because a test conducted by it recently found that an overwhelming majority of the phones tested would cause shortfalls in the audio quality of hands-free-supported conversations, a concern that automobile manufacturers say could be resolved through greater cooperation from phone manufacturers.
In a plea to solve a persistent problem, major car manufacturers, including Mercedes and Toyota, with hands-free terminal (HFT) supplier Bosch, have issued a strong call to mobile phone manufacturers to perform standardized tests on the behaviour of their products within hands-free systems and to participate in the standardization work that develops interoperability tests, a statement from ITU said.
The test, according to the UN body, analysed the behaviour of a representative sample of mobile phones available today and capable of connecting to hands-free systems.
“Of the phones tested, roughly 30 per cent passed the tests, with the remaining 70 per cent found to produce performance degradation that would be noticeable to drivers and conversational partners.
“Serious faults were observed in the worst-performing phones; some causing as much as a three-fold decline in voice quality, others completely failing to acknowledge that they had been connected to a vehicle’s hands-free system. Quality degradation of this extent has led to customer complaints to the car manufacturers, and experts say could give rise to safety risks as it could encourage drivers to use their phone by hand while driving”, it said.