China adopts USB standard phone charger

The Chinese government requires new mobile phones to use a standard USB plug for charging, as of 14 June 2007. As well as saving materials and lowering costs, this should also save energy, as having one charger plugged in to charge all mobile the phones in a household will be more efficient:

"The Chinese government is to set a single national standard on mobile phone chargers sold in the country to avoid waste and to lower costs, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has announced.

Under the new standard, all mobile phones, regardless of the brand, will be able to share one charger with a USB access, allowing users to charge handsets through laptops.

The unified standard will cut the cost of a new handset and reduce electronic waste and consumption of resources, an MII official said. ...

Lou Peide, executive secretary general with China Mobile Communications Association, estimated the new standard could save nearly 2.4 billion yuan (306 million U.S. dollars) each year for handsets made in China if the cost of each charger was seven to eight yuan."

From: "China spells out national standard for cell phone chargers", People's Daily Online , 20:31, December 19, 2006, <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200612/19/eng20061219_334047.html>

"China's standard of cell phone charger interface was initially implemented on June 14th. All domestic cell phones and chargers must match the standard. For chargers that are incompatible with each other only render more chargers useless after switching cell phones. ...

From: Unified standard of cell phone charger interface", People's Daily Online , 16:52, June 19, 2007 <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200706/19/eng20070619_385693.html>.