T
he International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations Body, has approved a new universal mobile phone charger that will work with any handset.
“Every mobile phone user will benefit from the new Universal Charging Solution (UCS), which enables the same charger to be used for all future handsets, regardless of make and model” the ITU said in a statement.
“In addition to dramatically cutting the number of chargers produced, shipped and subsequently discarded as new models become available, the new standard will mean users worldwide will be able to charge their mobiles anywhere from any available charger, while also reducing the energy consumed while charging.”
This will help reduce the increasing number of discarded chargers as people buy new phones and ditch their old ones. According to the GSMA, around 51,000 tonnes of chargers are being made redundant year after year.
The new charger will apparently reduce the green house gas emissions cause by the discarded chargers by over 13.6m tonnes estimates the GSMA.
“This is a significant step in reducing the environmental impact of mobile charging,” said Malcolm Johnson, director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardisation Bureau.
“Universal chargers are a common-sense solution that I look forward to seeing in other areas.”
At the moment of course, you buy a new phone and the charger that fits that phone has to come with it. If you lose your charger or forget to take it with you on holiday, you either have to find someone with exactly the same charger so that you can borrow it for a few hours or you would be forced into buying another one.
Having a universal charger that will fit any phone will make charging up our phones more convenient, but only if the manufacturers take it on board and it isn’t compulsory for them to do so. However, according to the ITU some have already signed up to it.
The new universal charger will connect to handsets via a micro USB port, which most modern handsets already have.
We won’t have to wait too long before the first of them start to appear either.
“We are planning to launch the universal charger internationally during the first half of 2010,” Aldo Liguori, spokesperson for Sony Ericsson told the BBC.
“We will roll it out with new products as they launch.”
At last, something new that will benefit each and every one of us.
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