The Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has offered to replace tens of millions of mobile phone batteries free of charge because of their potential risk of overheating.
      On Tuesday Nokia announced that some of the Nokia-branded BL-5C batteries may in rare cases overheat while recharging.
      The batteries in question are used in dozens of handset models. Nokia has several suppliers for the BL-5C batteries.
      The overheating problem concerns only the 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006.

Nokia reports that approximately 100 incidents of overheating have occurred while charging the battery, causing the battery to dislodge.
      According to Nokia no serious injuries or property damage have been reported.
      "Had there been reported bodily injuries, this would be a considerably more serious matter", says Nokia Executive Vice President of Customer and Market Operations Robert Andersson .

According to Andersson it is too early to estimate how much the replacement of the batteries will cost Nokia. The final bill will largely depend on people's eagerness to have their batteries replaced.
      In any case most of the overheads will be covered by the battery supplier Matshushita.
      "We have not wanted to speculate about the outlay. First and foremost we want to concentrate on correcting the quality issue."
      Nokia's co-operation with Matshushita is expected to continue.
      "A consumer advisory was prepared in good mutual understanding. Our joint interest is to resolve the matter as neatly and cost-effectively as possible", Andersson explained.