Several of the mobile big wigs, spearheaded by the Group Special Mobile Association (GSMA), announced plans to push a new universal phone charger. The 17 member group, which includes Nokia, LG, and AT&T, among others (but not Apple), are committing to use the Micro USB standard on all their cellphones by January 1, 2012.

Once this goes into effect any cellphone under this proposal will be able to charge using any standard Micro USB cable plugged into an outlet, laptop, desktop, etc. I say kudos to this initiative as it’ll disentangle the world from the mass of old, unused cell phone chargers.

[Wired]