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EuroWire – September 2009
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Several of the parties to the agreement signed in Brussels on
29
th
June already manufacture mobile phones that charge
through Micro-USB ports but are not guaranteed to function with
chargers made by other companies. EU Industry Commissioner
Guenter Verheugen said that a standardised charger would cut
costs for the phone makers and reduce the number of chargers
discarded when consumers buy new phones.
Marguerite Reardon, who covers telecom for the online
tech-industry site CNET, expressed surprise that Apple had joined
the group signing the agreement, since the company uses the
proprietary Dock connector for its highly successful iPhone and
other iPod devices. She wrote, “Apple has licensed the connector
technology to accessory makers, and there are thousands of
third-party products on the market that use the connector.
Apple had not been listed as a company in February that backed
the GSMA initiative for universal cell phone chargers.”
But Ms Reardon noted that Sony Ericsson, which also had
previously insisted on its own charging technology, now believes
the universal initiative will benefit the company by lowering the
cost of packaging and shipping, over time. It will also help to
shrink the firm’s carbon footprint.
“We see the universal cell phone chargers as a good thing for us
and the industry,” Jon Mulder, head of product marketing in the
US for Sony Ericsson, told CNET. “We are also planning to take
manuals out of our packaging and instead use e-manuals that
will be right on the devices to help reduce waste.”
An estimated 400 million mobile phones are in use in Europe,
❈
❈
and roughly 185 million phones are sold there each year.
The more sophisticated smartphones and higher-end-feature
phones to which the new EU requirement will apply make up
the fastest-growing segment of the mobile market, and will
probably account for over half of new phone sales in 2010.
The European Commission said it hopes that, within three
to four years, all the data-enabled phones in Europe will be
powered by the standardised chargers.
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
Nokia Siemens Networks said on 20
❈
❈
th
June that it would
buy the wireless operations of Nortel Networks, of Canada,
for $650 million to strengthen its position in the North
American market. The Finnish-German joint venture said it
will purchase the LTE (long term evolution) and CDMA (code
division multiple access) assets of Nortel, the Toronto-based
former telecom equipment giant now operating under
bankruptcy protection.
More than 2,500 Nortel employees, mainly in Canada and
the US, will be transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks.
The Canadian government-owned export credit agency,
Export Development Canada, will support the transaction
with a $300 million loan, Nokia Siemens said. Nokia
Siemens Networks is a joint venture of Nokia Corp,
the world’s top mobile phone maker, and Siemens AG.
It employs 60,000 people worldwide. Toronto-based Nortel’s
largest Canadian customer, Bell Mobility, said it welcomed
the deal as fostering Nortel’s long history of research and
development in Canada.