India's wait for uniform charging ports gets longer

The government is yet to decide on the deadline for adopting uniform charging ports in electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar told ET.

His comment comes amid a bitter battle between electronics giants Apple and Samsung over the timelines for implementation of the new charging port regulation. Analysts have advised caution saying any hasty decision by the government could impact India's smartphone exports.

According to officials aware of the details, while there is consensus on the proposal to adopt USB Type-C as the standard charging port, there are differences over the timeline for implementation.


"Samsung is pushing for implementing the charging mandate along with European Union (EU) timeline for smartphones, which is December 28, 2024; Apple suggested an EU+6 months' timeline for new models and an EU+18 months, if existing models are also included in the mandate," said an official privy of the details.

Other smartphone makers such as Vivo, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Realme also proposed EU+6 months' timeline for smartphones during the meeting, the official added. Electronics companies, including smartphone makers and laptop manufacturers, met officials from the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) on November 28 to discuss the matter.

"Samsung said if the EU timelines can't be met, in the worst-case scenario, the regulation should be implemented after 6 months," said another official, who was part of the meeting.

But Apple differed with Samsung and proposed that some transition period should be given for the implementation or it will impact the manufacturing of iPhones under the Centre production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

Queries sent to Apple and Samsung remained unanswered till press time.

On its part, the government is yet to take a call on the timelines. "The matter is under deliberation. All views are under consideration and the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) is yet to take a decision," Chandrasekhar said.

During the meeting, executives from Apple highlighted that designs for its earlier iPhone models cannot be changed, so a natural transition period should be given to implement the timeline.

For perspective, while all the new iPhone devices feature a C-port, including iPhone 15, it was not the case previously with older versions of iPhone, including 12, 13, and 14, having a lightning cable. Samsung, however, has been featuring the C-port on its smartphones for the past few years.

According to an analyst, since most of the iPhones manufactured in India are exported, any move to implement the deadline in a hasty manner, will have negative consequences for local manufacturing as apart from EU, no other country has such mandates.

"A majority of iPhone exports happen to the US, Middle East, Africa and Asia apart from local consumption, and all these countries have no such mandate so far. There is enough requirement for older iPhone models like 12, 13 and 14, and if such manufacturing of these is stopped in India due to any government mandate, it will have negative implications," said an analyst.

It will be very difficult for Apple to manufacture two sets of models for the older iPhones, said an industry executive.

Another executive said the government should understand that none of the competing countries like China, and Vietnam have any mandate on universal charging, and if India adopts it in a hasty manner, it will hurt exports.

The India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), however, said the industry is completely aligned with the government in implementing a uniform charging port regulation in the country to reduce e-waste and promote ease of living for consumers.

“The mobile phone industry has already adopted the Type-C USB port for charging and 100% of the new models launched and sold in India are with Type-C. We are working with the Meity for a smoother transition of all the notified products like mobile phones,” Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of ICEA said.

The government had first called a meeting with industry stakeholders and associations on August 18 to urge them to implement a common charging standard across mobile devices in a bid to reduce e-waste and make charging of electronic devices easier for consumers.

On June 7, the EU had agreed to have USB Type-C as the common charging standard for all mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets and cameras by 2024. Laptop makers have been given time till 2026 to comply.