ITU publishes ‘whitelist’ of mobile phones compatible with hands-free terminals in cars

The list will assist consumers and automakers in determining which mobile phones are optimized for high-quality voice conversations in the hands-free environment of vehicles, according to ITU.ITU said in a statement made available to Daily Trust at the weekend that the whitelist was produced at the request of automakers to address the great variance observed […]

The list will assist consumers and automakers in determining which mobile phones are optimized for high-quality voice conversations in the hands-free environment of vehicles, according to ITU.
ITU said in a statement made available to Daily Trust at the weekend that the whitelist was produced at the request of automakers to address the great variance observed in the behaviour of phones when operating within hands-free terminals (HFTs) installed in vehicles. This variance has resulted in automakers dedicating time and money to the testing of mobile phones, producing results that remain valid only until the new software for mobile phones or the next generation of mobile devices come to market.
The list aims to encourage mobile phone makers to follow the requirements of relevant ITU-T standards and to participate in ITU testing events that analyse the behaviour of their products in conjunction with vehicle HFTs.
“The entrance of nomadic devices into vehicles must be managed in such a way that it does not compromise the comfort and safety of drivers,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. “Central to this objective will be improving the compatibility of phones with hands-free terminals in vehicles, and ITU is working to achieve this by encouraging cooperation on this important topic between the automotive and ICT industries.”
Chaesub Lee, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, said: “The whitelist contains phones that fulfil the requirements of the ‘Chapter 12 tests’ of Recommendations ITU-T P.1100 and P.1110 standards for narrowband and wideband communications involving motor vehicles.”
The mobile phones currently listed were found to be in compliance with Recommendations ITU-T P.1100 and/or ITU-T P.1110 following an ITU test event held in May 2014, which adapted and applied the requirements of the Chapter 12 tests to real-world scenarios. ITU Members have approved the adaptions made to the tests, clearing the way for the publication of the whitelist.
Of the phones tested during the 2014 event, roughly 30 per cent passed the tests, with the remaining 70 percent found to produce performance degradation that would be noticeable to drivers and conversational partners.