The world’s top five mobile handset manufacturers are among a group of 17 major industry firms to have pledged their support for development of a mobile phone charger that will work with the majority of new handsets by 2012. The new ‘Universal Charging Solution’ (UCS) initiative, announced by the GSMA yesterday, aims to make life easier for consumers by providing a ‘one-size-fits-all’ charger. The GSMA claims it could potentially lead to 50 percent less chargers being manufactured each year. The new charger is also targeting a 50 percent reduction in standby energy consumption and claims to be three times more energy efficient than some current chargers. The UCS uses a Micro-USB as a common universal charging interface.

Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson are involved in the project from launch, supported by mobile operators 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, mobilkom austria, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone. Mobile chip giant Qualcomm is also involved.  Both 3 Group and Telefonica are aiming to have 75 percent of their handset portfolios UCS compliant by 2012, while Orange said it is looking at UCS accounting for two thirds of sales.