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Test event finds mobile phones have poor hands-free performance
Car makers issue decisive call to phone manufacturers to adhere to standards
Geneva, 13 June 2014 – The results of an
ITU test event have highlighted the need for phone manufacturers to
improve their products’ compatibility with car hands-free systems. The event
found that an overwhelming majority of the phones tested would cause shortfalls
in the audio quality of hands-free-supported conversations, a concern that
automobile manufacturers say could be resolved through greater cooperation from
phone manufacturers.
In a plea to solve a persistent problem, major car manufacturers, including
Mercedes and Toyota, with hands-free terminal (HFT) supplier Bosch, have issued
a strong call to mobile phone manufacturers to perform standardized tests on the
behaviour of their products within hands-free systems and to participate in the
ITU-T
Study Group 12 standardization work that develops interoperability
tests.
The test event, held at ITU Headquarters, 12-16 May, analysed the behaviour
of a representative sample of mobile phones available today and capable of
connecting to hands-free systems. Of the phones tested, 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.
Serious faults were observed in the worst-performing phones; some causing as
much as a three-fold decline in voice quality, others completely failing to
acknowledge that they had been connected to a vehicle’s hands-free system.
Quality degradation of this extent has led to customer complaints to the car
manufacturers, and experts say could give rise to safety risks as it could
encourage drivers to use their phone by hand while driving.
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré: “The results of this
interoperability test confirms the concerns of the automotive industry that
hands-free use of mobiles highlights a need to improve customer satisfaction and
road safety. ITU is well equipped to bring together the automotive and ICT
sectors to foster cooperation between two converging, but quite different
industries.”
A note to technical editors in annex, authored by experts
from HEAD acoustics gives a brief overview of the tests’ parameters and
findings, highlighting the most prominent concerns outlined in a detailed
report.
Frank Kettler, HEAD acoustics: “The current situation is unacceptable to the
automotive industry. The ITU-T P.11x-series is our opportunity to put hands-free
systems on the right track. It’s essential that we increase the visibility of
the Chapter 12 tests, that we revise them to meet industry needs and that they
are applied across the mobile phone industry. If we do not make inroads into
solving this problem using the P.11x-series, it is difficult to see how we will
ever do it.”
Christoph Montag, Bosch: “This problem is widespread and there has been
little progress over the past decade. We have to act to initiate improvement. In
the same way phones must adhere to standards to function within the network,
phones should be made to adhere to standards to permit their use in hands-free
systems.”
Fridjof Goebel, Daimler AG: “The results of these tests are illuminating and
should encourage us to work together to make more interoperable products to
serve our customers better. This is a real opportunity for industry and we fully
support a collaborative approach that will create a seamless customer experience
for all.”
Automakers assert that there is little complexity to their requirements,
asking only that mobile phones disable certain signal-processing functionality
as they enter a vehicle’s hands-free system. The great variance in the behaviour
of phones when operating within hands-free systems has resulted in auto makers
dedicating a significant volume of time and money to the testing of mobile
phones, producing test results that remain valid only until the new software for
mobile phones or the next generation of mobile devices come to market.
The tests were performed by
HEAD acoustics GmbH, applying the ‘Chapter 12 tests’ of
Recommendations ITU-T
P.1100 and
P.1110, standards for narrow-band and wideband communications
involving motor vehicles. The tests’ requirements were adapted and applied to
real-world scenarios. The methodology and results of the tests event will feed
into an ongoing process to refine the standards.
In a bid to motivate change, the test event’s participants appealed to ITU to
publish a “white list” of the phones found to have passed the tests. ITU’s
publication of the list, although planned, remains conditional upon ITU-T Study
Group 12’s approval of the revised Chapter 12 tests employed by the test event.
For more information, please see
www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/C-I/Pages/test_event_Feb14.aspx or
contact:
Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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