European Commission wants universal phone charger

The European Commission is pushing the mobile industry to develop a single universal charger for handsets so users can keep the chargers when they upgrade their phones, so millions of discarded chargers don’t end up in landfills.

The initiative, led by European Commissioner for Industry, Gunter Verheugen, has been ongoing, but the Commissioner now wants to take it into the realm of policy rather than relying on the goodwill of the industry. According to online media reports, Verheugen is losing his patience with the industry and is considering imposing regulation to enforce such an initiative.

The obvious benefit of an universal charger is that it will eliminate the need for mobile phone makers to supply a new charger when they are shipping new phones out to the market. Nokia, with its N95, already offers this option.

For end-users, the benefit can go beyond simply not upgrading the charger when upgrading the phone. A universal charger would allow users to share charging facilities, such as at the office, at the pub, at the corner convenient store. If implemented correctly, the system may reduce the number of charges in use by moving the chargers from individual homes to public locations. On the other hand, it could also lead to more chargers as public charging facilities duplicate domestic ones.

The EC’s idea has already been refuted by European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA) president, Tony Graziano, who points out that such a universal charger for Europe faces legal obstacles and won’t work technically due to different voltages in some countries.

Graziano points out that “the current EMC compliance regime requires the manufacturer to take responsibility for compliance of the mobile + charger together in meeting the relevant parts of the R&TTE harmonised standards of the EN 301 489 series.”

“This issue would have to be addressed by the appropriate regulatory authorities and industry: a specific conformity assessment scheme would need to be developed for mobile phones intended to be sold without a specific charger,” he said.

Graziano also notes that charger and battery technologies are under constant development and a gradual upgrade of the chargers is only natural.

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Tags: battery chargers, EICTA, European Commission, Nokia, Tony Graziano

Category: Mobile