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Once of the biggest obstacles to a truly “green” telecom industry seems to be finally coming to an end, as the Associated Press is reporting that the EU and companies like Nokia and other mobile phone vendors have agreed to make all their devices compatible with a single, standard charger.

The AP story runs as follows:

BRUSSELS (AP) — EU officials say they have reached a deal with mobile phone makers to introduce a new single, more energy efficient charger that can be used for data-enabled handsets.

EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen says selling a single, standard charger will cut costs to manufacturers and reduce the number of chargers thrown away when consumers buy new phones.

Verheugen says he also wants to see the common charger expand to include other older phones, cameras and laptops in the years ahead.

Under Monday’s accord, phone makers Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Motorola, Research in Motion and others will introduce the single charger by next year.

No word if all phones will also use a standard connector which would be even better news, hopefully a Mini or MicroUSB connector. Further reports indicate that the vendors and the EU also agreed that all smartphones sold in the EU will use microUSB connectors…HUZZAH!!!

This is definitely a big deal not only for the environment, but for those of us who need many different chargers for all their devices and therefore tend to live in a nest of cords and power bricks. Fire hazard aside, I have tripped on such cables more times then I like to remember and I would certainly save money on power strips if chargers could serve multiple needs. One element that seems strange is that the EU seems to think that phones/cameras and laptops can be charged by the same device. It would take the average phone charger a few days to get a laptop battery topped off, but maybe the charger will be able to be set to different power outputs.

(Source: NYT)