Calls for Participation: Common charger study - online survey

Overview
Please be informed that a public online consultation related to the study that the European Commission is conducting on the 'Common charger for mobile phones and other portable electronic devices' has been launched:


To take the survey an EC login is required but it should be relatively simple to get via their website.

EC Background Information

 In the past, mobile telephones were only compatible with specific mobile telephone chargers. An estimated 500 million mobile phones were in use in 2009 in all EU countries.

 The chargers used often varied according to the manufacturer and model, and more than 30 different types of charger were on the market. Apart from causing inconvenience to the consumer, this created unnecessary electronic waste.

 Almost every household is believed to have gathered a number of old chargers – estimated to generate more than 51 000 tons of electronic waste per year in the EU.

 In response, the European Commission facilitated an agreement among major handset manufacturers to adopt a common charger for data-enabled mobile phones sold in the EU.

 In June 2009, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in which mobile phone manufacturers agreed to harmonise chargers for new models of data-enabled handsets, coming onto the market as of 2011.

 As a result, Europe's major mobile phone manufacturers agreed to adopt a universal charger for data-enabled mobile phones sold in the EU. The MoU committed the industry to provide charger compatibility on the basis of the micro-USB connector.

 The MoU expired at the end of 2012 but it has effectively been extended by a number of its signatories through two subsequent ‘Letters of Intent’, signed in 2013 and 2014.

 A study was concluded in August 2014 to evaluate the results achieved by the MoU and specifically:

  • to analyse how the stated objectives of delivering benefits for consumers and for the industry were met;
  • to analyse results concerning the reduction of electronic waste;
  • to provide all information relevant to consider options for appropriate follow-up.


 The results of this study are now being assessed with new activity in this area expected as a result of this survey being part of this work.

Related ETSI work and background information

TECHNICAL COMMITTEE (TC) ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING (EE)
They are responsible for defining the equipment engineering, the bonding and grounding, the power supply interface and environmental aspects for telecommunication infrastructures and equipment.
They manage various engineering aspects of telecommunication equipment in different types of installations. These include:

  • environmental conditions (climatic, thermal, active substances, acoustic, etc.);
  • equipment practice (the physical requirements of racks, sub-racks and cabinets including thermal matters);
  • power supply and grounding (power interface specifications, power and grounding distributions);
  • eco-environmental matters (energy efficiency, environmental impact analysis, alternative energy sources);
  • environmental matters associated with mobile Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) devices.
Much of their work on energy efficiency supports European Commission (EC) policies, regulation or legislation. They are comprised of representatives from the Telecommunication network operators and equipment suppliers of Europe, China, Japan and the US.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts

Balancing functionality, usability and security in design

Image
Introduction When designing new devices or applications there is a requirement nowadays to consider there functionality, usability and security. While there has been a push through secure-by-design guidelines for security to be built-in from the beginning there are still gaps in implementation and part of these gaps are design considerations of functionality and usability. Part of this that doing security well is hard work, but it should never block useful functionality for the user. Ideally, when security interferes with key software capabilities, the security must be tweaked. The answer should never be to abandon the functionality and certainly not to abandon the security. Though achieving this balance is admittedly not straightforward. This blog post will aim to look at this triad and how they can be balanced and not compromise each other. Defining the Triad in design A triangle can be used to help explain the relationship between the concepts of security, functionality and ea
Read more

Personal Interest - Unbuilt fleets of the Royal Navy

Image
Introduction Throughout the 20th Century the Royal Navy designed and examined different types of fleets that were never realised either due to budget constraints, arms treaties or the changing nature of war. These are only a few examples of the different types of unbuilt fleets. Some of these had prototypes built and tasted for the Royal Navy which would serve as technological testbeds. Images and info from secret projects forum, shipbucket, popular mechanics/science and naval-matters. Washington Naval Treaty (WNT) The  Washington Naval Treaty  was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major nations that had won  World War I , which agreed to prevent an  arms race  by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the  Washington Naval Conference , held in  Washington, D.C. , from November 1921 to February 1922, and it was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, and Japan. It limited the construction of  battleships ,  battlecruisers
Read more

Personal Interest - RAF Unbuilt Projects

Image
  Introduction This blog post looks at the different groups of cancelled RAF projects. It will focus on the 50s, 60s, 90s/00s and a brief look at hypersonic research projects. While these projects were often cut or cancelled for budget or austerity reasons, they were also pushed by the changing nature of warfare firstly from conventional style WW2 warfare to the predicated quick, short scale nuclear war which was expected from 1947 to 1989. Later from the 90s and into the 21st Century a change from state on state conflict to facing insurgencies, counter-terrorism and peacekeeping missions again led to a change in how wars are fought. Though the work and research done on these projects would rarely go to waste with it being used and applied in other projects and works even if sometimes it could take another ten or twenty years before anything operational came of that work. There won't be large amounts of text explaining or exploring the designs there are far better sources for th
Read more