Major EU Phone Charger Crisis Bravely Averted, Civilization Saved

The EU? A micromanaging nanny state? No. Where'd anybody ever get that idea?

Having solved all major problems, with no unemployment, rioting, immigration or other issues to deal with, the European Commission has decided to tackle some of the minor ones.

Back in February of 2009 industry observer Corey Doctorow reported that the European Commission "is getting ready to force all mobile phone companies to use a single connector on their chargers, in order to eliminate the mountains of e-waste generated by switching chargers every time you switch phones."

Transformer bricks with esoteric connectors are "the most common form of electronic crap I see on street-vendors' blankets around the world (at least a hundred of them yesterday on Brick Lane in London, and literally thousands and thousands of them in Mumbai's Chor Bazaar), and given that they all put out nearly the same voltage and amperage, it really does seem like pure waste," Doctorow wrote.

Well hallelujah that the most pressing issue of our time, how many phone chargers Corey Doctorow is forced to view on the street, has been solved. No doubt Champagne is being popped in the Doctorow household as we speak.

So "new mobile phones sold in Europe as of next year should all work off the same universal chargers," the European Commission said on Friday, according to Agence France-Presse.

"It is expected that consumers will be able to use the same, one-size-fits-all charger for mobile phones sold in the EU from the beginning of 2011," spokesman Dennis Abbott said.

Aren't you relieved that Europeans don't have to keep track of their cell phone chargers anymore?

A deal between major mobile manufacturers was agreed last year but "excludes phones which do not support USB data exchange," Abbott warned, AFP reported, adding that Abbot said "it is expected that most mobile phones will be data-enabled from 2011."