The GSMA received two awards at the third annual Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards held last evening. The GSMA with Orange took the award for the “Mains Charging Innovation” for the Universal Charging Solution (UCS) initiative, while the GSMA PathFinder Service was the recipient of the Editor’s Award honouring innovation by an industry association.
GSMA Universal Charging Solution was unveiled in February during the Mobile World Congress, when GSMA along with 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers announced their commitment to implement a cross-industry standard for a Universal Charging Solution for new mobile phones. As a result, an agreement has been reached to adopt a common format for mobile phone charger connections and energy-efficient chargers. In that sense, it is expected 50% reduction in standby energy consumption and the potential elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers, as well as a simplified charging experience for the end user. By 2012 a universal charging solution will be widely available in the market worldwide and will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface.
GSMA PathFinder Service is a managed service providing an interoperable, industry-wide solution that enables the routing of global IP service interconnect traffic. Operated by NeuStar on behalf of the GSMA, the service is based on the GSMA’s Carrier ENUM technology and acts as a central directory where operators can share mobile and fixed line addresses to allow the swift and cost-effective routing of packet voice, instant messaging, multimedia services, email and video. PathFinder streamlines and simplifies the delivery of IP-based services by identifying the IP address that maps to the phone number for individual mobile devices, fixed-line phones and IP devices.
Commenting on the awards received, GSMA’s CMO Michael O’Hara said: “We are extremely gratified to have been recognised by Global Telecoms Business and the entire panel of judges for both the Universal Charging Solution and for our PathFinder Service. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry and these projects represent prime examples of that commitment to innovation.”