Switzerland Wants a Single, Universal Phone Charger by 2017

Published: 29th December 2015 | Source: Swiss Government | Author: Mark Campbell

Switzerland Wants a Single, Universal Phone Charger by 2017 in order to reduce waste and make things easier for consumers, allowing them to easily and cheaply purchase compatible cables for their mobile phones.

This will allow consumers to be able to more freely purchase phone chargers without having to fork out obscene amounts of money for rare phone charger types like Lightning or other Apple-only chargers. Right now we do not know what cable/ charging standard that Switzerland would like to support, but a likely candidate is the new USB Type-C standard, given it's enhanced durability and ease of use when compared to Micro-USB.

The standardization efforts specified in the new legal basis concern, among other things, mobile telephones and other devices which will have to be compatible with a universal charger by mid-2017 at the latest. This measure will reduce the quantity of chargers and therefore the amount of electronic waste.
In addition, the rules applicable to telecommunications and electrical equipment are being harmonised and responsibilities are being allocated more clearly. It will therefore be easier for producers, importers and sellers to guarantee that products placed on the market are in conformity with the rules.

Switzerland Wants a Single, Universal Phone Charger by 2017

Right now Micro USB is by far the most common connector used in today's mobile phones, with many other cable types having seemingly dropped of the face of the earth in recent years. At present it is unknown how Apple and other phone manufacturers that use uncommon connectors will react to this, though it in not impossible for these manufacturers to simply discard the cable entirely in order to use Wireless charging exclusively.

You can join the discussion on Switzerland looking for a single, unified Phone charging standard by 2017 on the OC3D Forums.

Switzerland Wants a Single, Universal Phone Charger by 2017. Let's hope it is USB Type-C. https://t.co/in5QZxjRlW pic.twitter.com/x97Ol6gGlN
— OC3D (@OC3D) December 29, 2015

Most Recent Comments

29-12-2015, 12:35:56

AlienALX

Apple, stop being a D word.

lmao.Quote

29-12-2015, 13:18:52

TalllPaul

Yes yes yesQuote

29-12-2015, 18:56:44

NeverBackDown

Let's just make it international instead. Makes everything so much easierQuote

29-12-2015, 19:06:49

JR23

Is type C backwards compatible enough to realistically implement in 2017, can you make a type C to USB3.1 cable? If everyone would have to supply two cables so you can use phones with chargers and current PC's that would seem counterproductive. Given not all brand new motherboards have type C I can't see it being something that everybody has in two years time. It should be extended to tablets and net/ultra/floppy book little low power type things as well.

If apple changed to micro-USB then everybody would be ready tomorrow for data and charging. Still i'm a big fan of their current thinking of putting the part of the connector which is most likely to get damaged and dirty in the phone itself.

JRQuote

29-12-2015, 19:29:54

MadMarc

Quote:

Originally Posted by JR23

Is type C backwards compatible enough to realistically implement in 2017, can you make a type C to USB3.1 cable?
JR

There are cables with a type C on one end and a regular type A on the other, so you could still use the old AC adapter or a computer without type c ports. The only thing they'd have to change is the connector on the phone and include a different cable.Quote

Switzerland Wants a Single, Universal Phone Charger by 2017