Last February the European Commission said it wanted to see a universal charger introduced for mobile phones. It's a move that was supported by the GSMA, the ITU, the CTIA and a number of manufacturers.

The EC now says it expects the micro-USB socket to be used for charging on new phones from 2011. This will be standard on all new phones that are fitted with a mini-USB socket for data transfer with a PC.

More than 321 million mobile handsets were shipped globally in the second quarter of 2010, according to ABI Research. That's an increase of 5.9% on the previous quarter and 19.4% year-on-year.

Figures from Strategy Analytics differ slightly; they've calculated a 13% year-on-year growth to 308 million devices.

ABI Research says that data usage in Western Europe and North America from 2009 until 2015 is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42% and 55% respectively.

However, this increase in data traffic is not being matched by a rise in data revenues for network operators. Mobile data revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of only 18% in North America, restricted in part by the popularity of 'unlimited' or 'fixed price' tariffs.

Following yesterday's announcement from the UAE that certain online BlackBerry services would be blocked from October because they're encrypted and cannot be monitored, Saudi Arabia has said it'll be blocking the BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service later this month for similar reasons.

O2 has launched a £5-a-month mobile broadband contract that offers 500MB of data. There's an upfront charge of £19.99 for the dongle, which also provides unlimited WiFi access at via The Cloud and BT Openzone. The tariff can be cancelled with just 30 days notice.