Universal Mobile Charger
Mobile phone manufacturers have now agreed to use a universal model for mobile phone chargers. This means that the days are of not being able to charge your recycled NEC mobile because none of your friends have the same phone and therefore the same charger should soon be long gone.
A conglomerate of 10 mobile phone manufacturers including Apple, Nokia, and Motorola have all agreed to offer the same charger, and this will use the micro-USB connector to charge the mobile phones. It is our understanding that this is the charging interface which is used for a number of Nokia mobile phones at the moment.
In a bid to cut down on the level of electronic waste that is being generated in the EU, the European commission had requested that the mobile phone manufacturers look at a solution which harmonised mobile phone chargers. It is believed that defunct chargers make up thousands of tonnes of the electronic waste every year, and the EU has threatened legislation to sort this out unless a voluntary understanding can be reached.
The EU industry commissioner was pleased with the agreement, believing that consumers would be able to charge their mobile phones wherever they went because everyone would have one of the new types of chargers, and in addition a huge amount of the electronic waste would be diverted from landfill; as consumers would no longer have to throw away their old mobile phone chargers when buying brand new phones.
The phone manufacturers and the EU officials have produced a memorandum of understanding which I agree it that the first set of harmonised mobile phone chargers would reach the market in 2010.
A key feature of the agreement also included the fact that the chargers will reduce energy consumption and improved the energy efficiency of the mobile phones. In addition this should make the lives of mobile phone users easier, as they will not need a new charger with a new phone.
