AT&T’s ZERO draw charger to fight phantom power

AT&T and Superior Communications have launched a new phone charger that promises to eliminate the phantom, or vampire, energy draw, from millions of chargers left plugged in. The AT&T ZERO charger works by automatically sensing when a mobile phone is not plugged up to the charger and cutting the power supply from the wall socket.

According to AT&T, the AT&T ZERO charger, if used by all 277 million mobile phone users in the US, will be able to save enough energy to power 24,000 homes for a year, or brew three to four million cups of coffee each day. The calculations used for the results was based on each user have one mobile phone, which is charged 3 to 4 times a week for 8 hours, with 80% of them leaving the charger plugged in the wall socket. That scenario will waste 170mW on average per charger left idle, the assumption goes.

If the same calculations were applied to the world’s 4 billion or so mobile phone users, the energy savings would be some 15 times of those cited by AT&T, or some 360,000 homes a year.

The ZERO charger will go on sale in May and cost the same as existing replacement chargers. The ZERO charger also features a ‘block and cable’ design that is interchangeable for future handset models, which cuts the number of chargers produced, AT&T added. The charger also has a 5-star efficiency rating, which AT&T says, exceeds the standards set by GSMA’s universal charger initiative.

“In an effort to provide environmentally friendly and simpler solutions for our customers, AT&T worked hand in hand with Superior Communications to create the first practical and user-friendly zero-draw charger for mobile phones,” said Carlton Hill, vice president of Devices and Product Development for AT&T’s wireless operations. “With the size of AT&T’s customer base, providing solutions like these helps our customers make a big difference.”

Related posts:

1. European Commission wants universal phone charger
2. UPDATE: Mobile industry pledges universal charger by 2012
3. Mobile makers pledge universal charger
4. Orange finds dance power for mobiles
5. Digicel Pacific installs hybrid solar power cell sites in PNG

Tags: AT&T, zero draw charger

Category: Global energy, Green ICT, Mobile