Nokia warns of battery problem that affects 46 million phones

Espoo (Finland) - The world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer has issued an overheating warning about one of the batteries used in its products that could affect as many as 46 million handsets.

The BL-5C battery from Matsushita "could potentially experience overheating initiated by a short circuit while charging," said Nokia in a statement. The company said around 100 incidents have been reported, all of which claim heating problems occurred while charging the phone.

The BL-5C battery is used in hundreds of millions of Nokia phones, but only the ones made by Matsushita are affected, and only during the time period from December 2005 and November 2006. According to Nokia, around 46 million of these batteries were used in handsets shipped around the world.

Because all of its BL-5C batteries are labeled with Nokia branding, it is impossible for users to see if their battery is affected. Anyone with a BL-5C Nokia-branded battery will have to contact Nokia to determine if their phone is part of the recall.

Nokia will swap out batteries for anyone affected by the problem.