Digicel has ceased selling the popular Nokia phones, because of what the cell phone company acknowledges to be problems with the handset.

Nokia, a Swedish company, is the world’s biggest cell phone maker. But some of its handsets have been known to give problems in Europe and Asia.

Yesterday, Seamus Lynch, chief operating officer of Digicel, said that there had been no recall of the phones in use, and the halting of the sales may be temporary.

“We haven’t recalled any Nokia phones, but we have had a problem with them,” conceded Lynch in an interview with the Business Observer. “We have decided to stop selling Nokia for now…”

Other competing brands such as Motorola, Panasonic and Sony were now being “pushed” he said.

The Business Observer first learned about the problems with the Nokia 3310 phones from dissatisfied customers, but was made aware of the extent of the problem, only after two dealers made the disclosure. The dealers said that Digicel informed them that supplies of the Nokia 3310s were no longer available and that they were to “halt the sales of those in stock”.

Digicel recently established a repair centre operated by Stanley Motta, but the centre has been unable to cope with the volume of problems.

“Some of the screens of the Nokia 3310 phones have been fading, but we have had Nokia technicians come in to repair them at a centre which was launched six weeks ago,” explained Lynch.

So extensive is the problem that some affected customers have been unable to get replacement phones, or to have their phones repaired for weeks.

“I gave in my phone and for six weeks had no cellular, as there was nothing available for them to lend me,” complained Nadine Walker, a bitter customer.

Two Digicel dealers in the New Kingston area, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that they were in short supply of ‘loan’ phones because of the number of units which required repairs.

“The Digicel dealers are given ‘loan’ phones, but the supply is limited,” said Joseph Walker, managing director of Stanley Motta, the centre responsible for the repair of Digicel phones.

Walker explained that the phone repair was a centralised operation. Customers whose cellular units need repairs, take them to the dealers who are supposed to offer them replacements while their unit is being repaired. Once repaired, the phone is sent back to the dealer from Stanley Motta – usually within 10 days.

Melanie Scott, a director at Stanley Motta, told the Business Observer that once the phones were returned within the one-year warranty period, they would be repaired free of charge. Phones turned in after that period attracted a charge of $1,768 inclusive of tax she said.

Scott said that a backlog of phones to be repaired had developed, resulting in the shortage of ‘loan’ phones.

Digicel whose customer base surpassed 350,000 within just over a year after it began operating in Jamaica, was apparently late off the ground in establishing a repair centre.

“Normally manufacturers give six months for a repair centre to be set up, but Digicel insisted that we be up and running within a month,” said Scott. “As a result, the centre was not fully equipped when it started operations in the last week of April, as some of the parts were either in transit or being stored by customs.”

Scott said that there was no serious backlog at Stanley Motta. “The backlog exists within the market, not at Stanley Motta,” she said.

Nokia Corporation warned yesterday that its sales would fall rather than rise in the second quarter compared with a year ago.

The new forecast put net sales within the range of 6.9 billion euros to 7.2 billion euros (US$6.5 billion to US$7 billion) for the quarter.