Handset companies get more time to follow new battery rules

India has allowed handset makers another year to move from an older standard for certifying batteries to a new one. The decision, manufacturers said, will give them enough time to comply with the rule and reduce the time required to take products to the market.
The Bureau of Indian Standards has informed companies that it will allow concurrent running of two battery certification standards — issued in 2012 and 2015 — till August 2017, after which only the latter one shall remain.
“If manufacturers who have models as per 2012 and 2015 versions fail to changeover completely to the revised version by August 31, 2017, existing models as per 2012 version shall be processed for deletion (will not be allowed to use in phones),” an August 12 BIS notice sent to all phone makers read.
The previous deadline was September this year, which handset makers had argued left little or no time for compliance. This is because the new standards, though issued last year, were implemented only this June, leaving just a three-month buffer for the manufacturers to move from one standard to the other.
“The extra year would now help us reduce lead time from five months to three months, to bring new products to the market because we can plan the implementation better,” said Gaurav Nigam, the product head at Lava International. As per the 2012 rules, handset makers had to first certify the cells that go into batteries, followed by certification for batteries and then the handset on the whole.