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Siemens recalls ISDN products

Gimme gimme shock treatment

Siemens is recalling some of its ISDN networking products after discovering a manufacturing fault in a batch of its kit which affects the electrical safety of the devices.

The fault could affect between one and two per cent of a batch of devices, which were manufactured in its Swiss production line, and distributed throughout the world from October 2000. A Siemens spokesman suggested most of the affected products ended up in Ireland but didn't have a figure on how many faulty products in total were produced nor a list of where faulty kit was distributed.

Although nobody has been hurt by the problem, the fault has safety implications because users might receive an electrical shock from faulty equipment. If the ISDN box is faulty, when the power lead is removed, there is a small possibility that a pin from the ISDN box may come loose but remain attached to the power lead. In these circumstances, the user could be exposed to electrical shock if the other end of the power lead is still connected to the mains electrical supply.

Among Siemens' suppliers affected is eircom, Ireland's main communications company, which estimates between 50 to 100 boxes, which are marketed by eircom under the name "ISDN BRA" and "ISDN hi-speed Plug and Play", affected by the problem have been distributed in Ireland.

The manufacture is unable to identify precisely which products are affected, so eircom is contacting all 6,800 customers supplied with Siemens-based ISDN BRA or ISDN hi-speed stock between late October until last week. To highlight the issue, Siemens and eircom have also placed ads in Ireland's national newspapers.

Siemens has promised to replace or modify potentially faulty equipment, and it will begin delivering fault-free equipment into Ireland from today. In the meantime, Siemens and eircom are instructing customers not to remove the cable lead from the ISDN box.

Siemens has apologised to all eircom customers for any inconvenience or concern caused by this issue. ®

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