Archived Newsroom • Press Release |
|
ITU publishes ‘whitelist’ of mobile phones found
compatible
with hands-free terminals in cars
New resource to assist consumers in selecting best hands-free performers in
vehicles
Geneva, 5 March 2015 – ITU has published a
‘whitelist’ of mobile phones that are compatible with
Bluetooth®-enabled hands-free telephone systems in vehicles. 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.
The whitelist has been 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 a significant amount of 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 manufacturers 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 test event, 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.
The worst performing phones showed some serious defects: some causing
significantly distorted speech, others completely failing to acknowledge
connection to a vehicle’s HFT. Quality degradation of this extent has led to
customer complaints to automakers, and experts assert that such performance
could give rise to safety risks by encouraging drivers to handle their phones
while driving. For more information, read the
ITU press release reporting the test event’s results.
The whitelist will be updated in line with the results of a series of
conformance testing events based on ITU-T P.1100 and P.1110. The next such event
is scheduled to be held in September at ITU Headquarters in Geneva.
For more information, please
contact:
Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information
|
|
About ITU...