EoW September 2009

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.

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EuroWire – September 2009