The world’s biggest mobile phone makers announced a deal today agreeing to a universal standard phone charger that will work on millions of handsets made by different manufacturers.

Until now, phone makers have included a charger with every new handset, often with each charger only working on one type of device. From next year, everything from the iPhone and the BlackBerry, to phones made by Nokia and Sony Ericsson, will be made to work with a single charger that will work across many different brands of phone.

Ten companies, including Apple, Motorola and Samsung, have pledged to start making phones that can be charged using a single charger from next year. For phones sold in Europe, the manufacturers will adopt the micro USB connector across all their devices, already the standard on handsets such as the BlackBerry.

“It’s a small thing, but a big issue for the consumer,” said Ernest Doku, an analyst for mobile phone comparison site, Omio.com. “It was simply a foolish situation. But phone makers wanted to have their own technology for each phone to be stay a step ahead. It’s good for the manufacturers to swallow their pride, as this will be for the end user’s benefit.”

Though the universal charger will be welcomed by consumers as more convenient, the urgency behind the agreement came from the belief that it will also have a positive impact on the environment.

“People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone,” said EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, estimating that unwanted phone accessories accounted for thousands of tonnes of waste in Europe each year.

The mobile phone industry has long been attacked by environmental campaigners for being one of the least green areas of technology. The GSMA, the trade organisation that represents the mobile phone industry, said that the new universal chargers will consume half as much energy when on “standby” - or plugged into the socket, but not actually charging a phone - as current charging cables. The GSMA hopes that most mobile phones by 2012 will operate using the universal charger.

The new standard charger will replace the more than 30 different kinds of charger that are currently in use across European member states. The deal followed threats by the European Commission to introduce legislation if a voluntary solution could not be found.

The commission said the it will work on “data-enabled” mobiles that hit the high street in 2010. These are phones that can be plugged into a computer to exchange data such as pictures and files. Most phones should be able to charge in about two hours.

There are an estimated 400 million mobile phones in Europe, with 185 million bought each year. The ten companies involved control around 90 per cent of the mobile phone market.

Though the standardised chargers will only be compatible with European phones, the commission said it hoped the rest of the world would eventually follow its lead.

“We’re assuming this new European initiative will have a knock-on effect globally and manufacturers won’t just be doing this on the European market,” Mr Verheugen said.

Mobile numbers

1973 The year of the first mobile telephone call

400 million active mobile phones in Europe

72 million active mobile phones in Britain

40 million pay-as-you-go phones in Britain

90 million estimated handsets unused in British homes

1,712 phones are replaced every minute

Source: Regeneris, Vodafone, Times research

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