The universal charger

The GSMA mobile phone industry association has announced a breakthrough we’ve all been waiting for for years: an agreement among several top mobile phone operators and major handset vendors to standardise chargers by 2012 for most cellphones. These chargers will feature a shared USB interface and claim to meet higher energy efficiency targets. In this way, no matter which phone you buy, your charger will be interchangeable, and your phone can be charged from any charger. Not only will this save time and pain, but the environment too. The GSMA estimates an enormous reduction in greenhouse gases from the manufacturing of replacement chargers and a substantial reduction in waste as well. Companies that have jumped on the universal charger bandwagon so far include Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, Mobilkom Austria, Orange, Qualcomm, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone.