Recently you may have noticed some mobile phone manufacturers ‘doing their bit’ for the environment. Samsung released the S7550 Blue Earth, an eco-friendly phone made out of recycled materials with low standby power, an energy efficient eco-mode and solar panelled back. Similarly, Sony Ericsson dipped their toe into the Green pool offering the Naite, a product that offers eco rewards for buying it and has a 5 star energy efficient charger. Both are trying to help the planet one phone at a time, but what about the users who see the eco alternatives as a necessity rather than a good deed?

There are currently over 4 billion mobile connections in the world; 500 million of those people have a mobile contract, but no access to an electricity grid. Over the years this figure is bound to increase as more people at the “base of the economic pyramid” get a mobile phone. New solutions are emerging to charge mobiles, which are beneficial to both low-income consumers and the planet.  As part of it’s Green Power for Mobile programme, the GSMA Development Fund have conducted research into off-grid charging solutions for mobile phones.

The survey was carried out over a three-month period, spanning from June to August 09 and involved in depth field research into vendors, products and users. It found there was significant interest in off-grid charging solutions from mobile operators, over half of those who were interviewed had already introduced or were looking for new charging methods. At the same time, there’s limited understanding into the solutions available to them and they’re looking for help and support from the mobile industry.

Mobile manufacturers have already agreed on a worldwide ‘Universal charging solution’, where a set charging method, microUSB will run across all handsets by 2012. This is at least a start to cutting waste, it’s already estimated that the initiative will reduce standby energy consumption by 50%, and will eliminate potentially 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers for mobile phones. However, this still doesn’t help those users who are yet to get access to an electrical grid. Across developing nations mobile phone owners charge their handset on a pay-per-charge basis. But the cost to do this works out at the same price as the cheapest scratch card to put talktime onto the phone. Users have to choose between battery life and credit.

It’s a catch 22 situation, without reliable charging solutions mobile phones run out of power, so people will miss calls. If they top up credit, the battery will soon lose power and become useless until more money is spent to charge it. These missed calls, and dormant phones could potentially be earning networks money, it’s been estimated that by introducing off-grid power supplies networks could rake in an extra $2.3billion (around £1.53Billion). Recent field trials in Haiti and Madagascar proved there were commercial rewards for networks. Toughstuff, a UK based company, produces solar products for low-income families in developing countries. They saw the use of solar mobile chargers increase usage from 1.0min to 1.5mins per day. Other studies revealed the same trends and showed and average revenue per user increase of 10% when the off-grid measures were put into place.

All this research suggests there is a gap in the market for new charging solutions, which will benefit not only the users, but the networks too. Obviously different circumstances call for different measures; with that in mind GSMA has produced a table outlining the specifics for each solution.

We’ve already seen solar panel chargers on the market, not only on mobile phones but also in a variety of ingenious products. Similarly, we recently covered the proposed wind up mobile phone, set for release in 2010. Village charging stations are already in place, but it comes at an expense to the phone owner, who has to leave not only their money but their phone or battery as well until the power is switched on, and the mobile charged.

These early studies and pilot projects suggest that these charging solutions are a good investment for the major networks as well as providing real social and environmental benefits. The GSMA report has established several possibilities for Mobile Phone charging in off-grid areas and is asking networks to consider the following “charging choices” when deciding which solution to use.