DoCoMo in one of biggest ever product recalls

Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has embarked on a mammoth retraction of 840,000 phones due to a battery fault.

The glitch affects users of the camera-equipped NEC N504iS mobile, which debuted in November.

In rare instances, the conflict between the battery pack and handset may cause the phone to overheat, DoCoMo said in a statement.

The company has since suspended the sale of the phone.

In addition to issuing an advisory to buyers, the operator has also published warnings in newspapers and its websites.

DoCoMo said it is "urgently producing replacement battery packs", and will mail these to customers after mid-February.

While this is not the first case of handset recalls, it is one of most massive product withdrawals witnessed ever.

Earlier this month, Panasonic recalled its GD68 phone in Australia due to a defect which prevents users from dialling emergency telephone numbers.