MEP calls for hands-free mobile kit compatibility

Date: 24/01/02

By Laurence Frost

MOBILE phone makers are under pressure to boost road safety by drawing up new technical standards for 'hands-free' car kits.

In a campaign backed by safety groups, MEP Paul Rubig is calling for the standards to ensure consumers can continue using their kits when they upgrade their phones.

With EU consumers changing mobiles on average every one or two years, the Austrian believes incompatibility between models is a deterrent against buying the kits, which often cost as much as a new phone.

Rubig claims many motorists end up using cheaper headsets. He said: 'people are more concentrated on getting the thing into their ear than they are on driving'.

'It's very important that there should be one standard for connecting the phones to the kits.'

In a written reply to Rubig, EU industry chief Erkki Liikanen agreed that a voluntary standard 'makes perfect sense'.

Safety campaigners are also backing Rubig's demand for a universal car kit connection.

'Anything that can encourage the use of proper hands-free kits is a good thing,' said Jeanne Breen, of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).

A recent ETSC report found that using a mobile while driving increases by fourfold the likelihood of crashing and showed that drivers tend to veer off course when dialling by hand - still necessary with a simple headset.

Road accidents are still the main cause of death for Europeans aged 45 and below.

More than 40,000 people are killed on EU roads yearly, and around 3.5 million injured.

Mobile phone makers are under pressure to boost road safety by drawing up new technical standards for 'hands-free' car kits.