It's been a long time coming, but I finally feel I no longer need to carry a Micro USB cable around with me. My travel bag is one cable lighter for the widespread adoption of USB Type-C. I can thank, in part, the European Union for that one. The bloc used its considerable might to push manufacturers into adopting the latest connectivity standard.
This win is not lost in Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament. The official TikTok account for the legislator has put out a USB Type-C edit that goes especially hard, and I want to shake the hand of whoever made it.
My reaction to the video was bewilderment and laughter. Someone did a spectacular job on this, and it shows, with 1.5 million likes for a piece of government communication about cable standards. There are over 6,000 comments, including:
"A usb c edit by the official European Parliament… what a world we live in."
"USB C edit before GTA VI," says another user, beating a dead horse.
"They act like they invented type c" writes another.
So, what did the EU actually do here? It's true that the EU did not invent USB Type-C. USB-IF sets the standard, and that's a corporation created by other corporations with current board members from Intel, Texas Instruments, HP, Apple, Microsoft, STMicroelectronics, and Renesas Electronics. But the EU did play a part in USB Type-C's widespread adoption.
The EU legislated that most electronic devices would be required to use USB Type-C by law from 2024 onwards. The idea being that customers have less confusion over connectors and fewer cables to throw away. E-waste is a huge issue in the modern world of cheap, accessible electronics.
The adopted Radio Equipment Directive also sought to minimise proprietary chargers, any limitations on said chargers, and prevent any one manufacturer from owning the ecosystem. You can take a guess which major tech company that was aimed at, and, wahey, it now uses USB Type-C.
There's a good case for minimising proprietary connections and cutting out cable waste. I'm all for the change. Though I do have a bone to pick with USB-IF. USB specifications are complicated and confusing. They feel like they're almost designed to be confusing; what with USB naming conventions changing retroactively and speed and power specifications that are up for interpretation. You don't always know what you're getting when you plug Cable A into Port B, or Cable B into Port A. The connector might be the same, the specification and cable could be wildly different.
But, hey, I do appreciate having one cable capable of charging all of my portable devices, even if I had to shop around for the best cable to do so.
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