Eircell has withdrawn its flagship WAP mobile phone, the Nokia 7110, from the retail market as a result of hardware and software problems arising with the device.
The move follows a number of customer complaints about the phone's performance. Following failure of a handset testing process within Eircell, the product has been removed from its approved list of handsets.
It is understood Nokia has now developed a patch for the software and, according to a Nokia spokesman, the product will be relisted on Monday having passed the handset tests.
He said the problem arose during a Nokia software upgrade that raised an incompatibility issue between the software and the Eircell network.
The 7110 is Eircell's most popular subscriber WAP phone among its estimated 10,500 WAP subscribers, other than pre-paid Ready-to-Go WAP users. Eircell has 30,000 WAP customers in total.
An Eircell spokeswoman said the majority of its WAP customers used Eircell's pre-paid Ready-To-Go phones from Siemens, so the impact was limited.
She added that owners of Nokia 7110 WAP phones experiencing problems with the handset should call Eircell's customer operations line, 1907. It will arrange to recall the handset and upgrade the faulty software. The problems with the phone were only confirmed in recent weeks after Eircell customers filed a number of complaints about its reliability and tendency to crash.
Earlier this week e-mail based IT newsletter ElectricNews.net reported Eircell had ceased distributing the phones to Irish retailers. The report added Esat Digifone was continuing to distribute the 7110, after upgrading the software immediately following concerns about its reliability.
