All For Green Telecom

Gone are the days when green was considered an obligation, the Indian telecommunications industry has grown and gradually matured to be one of the most responsible sectors in the country. With environmental concerns taking center stage in the recent times, telcos today are focusing on energy-efficient ways and investing in secondary power to ensure minimal environmental impact without compromising on quality.

The rapidly expanding subscriber base of the mobile phone segment and the resultant increase in Green House Gases (GHG) emissions from the increased usage of cell phones in the country, has forced the industry to embrace the concept of green with open arms. The government too is not leaving any stone unturned to take up with social responsibility and the latest released recommendations of Trai on the approach and 'green telecom' practices speak volumes about the gravity of the matter. As per its recommendations on 'Approach Towards Green Telecommunications', a telecom service provider should declare the carbon footprint of their network operations in the prescribed format. This declaration should be undertaken after adopting the prescribed formula and procedures. The declaration of the carbon footprints should be done twice in a year, that is after every 6 months.

Corporate responsibility and public image aside, the other aspect of going green, especially from a service provider perspective is the direct impact that it has on the bottomline. The massive increase in network traffic has prioritized the installation of a lot of new telecom equipments in both service provider networks as well as in data centers, which implies additional power consumption and increased margin pressure.

In India green initiatives make a lot of sense because of erratic power conditions leading to extra expenses due to power generators, diesel costs, etc.

The Indian telecommunications industry has been one of the biggest consumers of energy since networks became operational 24x7. The growth of the sector is directly proportional to the mounting costs for developing physical infrastructure and the Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHGs). The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector currently consumes approximately 2% of global carbon emissions, more than 2/3rds of which are generated by the network.

With decreasing ARPU and increased opex, operators need a future-oriented wireless network solution to handle the challenges and boost profits.

In an energy-starved country like ours, telecom operators have to invest in a back-up to grid power even in urban areas. That is why operators are now looking to green telecom networking products. Going green is not just an option, but a necessity for telecom service providers in a market where margins have fallen due to the sharp erosion in tariffs.

The entire telecom ecosystem, be it the service providers, core tower companies, equipment vendors, content aggravators, and last but not the least, the government too has been strongly focusing on green efforts as well.

Initiatives

In an endeavor towards energy efficiency and cost reduction, Bharti Infratel has set an initial target of deploying 2,000 renewable energy sites. This initiative, which is the first of its scale for an Indian Passive Telecom Infrastructure provider (tower sharing), would result in estimated savings of $16.67 mn per year. The project would also result in an estimated reduction of 58,170 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, thus helping in the mitigation of global warming potential.

The parent company Bharti Airtel is also leading the way with solar energy. It is powering mobile towers with solar PV in remote rural areas in India. It has also entered into a joint venture with ACME Tele Power for carbon credits. Airtel is also the first to operate its network on Energy Management System (EMS) which helps the company to slash its operating cost upto 40%.

Meanwhile talking about the service provider, Idea Cellular that is known for taking up critical issues like health, education, etc, has taken up its corporate responsibility of environmental concerns. Advocating a paperless society, the operator has come up with a creative thought that has the potential to become a habit in the future. This initiative to educate subscribers on the use of mobile applications that can help subscribers cut down their carbon footprint, is an encouraging step towards the long journey.

Nokia has initiated its 'Take Back' campaign encouraging consumers to drop their unused mobiles, chargers, and accessories, irrespective of the brand into recycling bins placed at any of the Nokia Care Centers or priority dealers across India. The company has also launched its 'Planet Ke Rakhwale' campaign which is an extension of the 'Take Back' campaign. The Planet Ke Rakhwale further aims to inspire young minds to spread the 'Take Back' message. It is positioned as the voice of the next generation-calling the attention of the adults to pay attention to something which directly impacts their world. Additionally, for every handset dropped for recycling, Nokia has also committed itself to planting a sapling.

Huawei has developed innovative technologies which involves improving the power amplifier efficiency, raising the base station working temperature to eliminate the air conditioning system, adopting the distributed and integrated central office and using the intelligent shutdown technology. It has launched SingleRAN solution based on the software-defined radio (SDR) system to simplify energy-using nodes and save energy by way of network convergence, which has a potential of reducing 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per year per base station.

Ericsson as well has continued to pay a lot of attention to drive adoption of telecom technologies that support sustainable development. The company is continuously engaged in rationalizing their hardware components to progressively reduce power consumption.

Nokia Siemens Networks is in global collaboration with ACME Tele Power to provide energy-efficient radio cell site solutions to telecom operators.

GTL Infra, a subsidiary of Mumbai based Global Group, has already started moving from diesel to solar and other alternate sources of energy.

The equipment vendors GreenTouch Consortium, founded by Alcatel-Lucent, earlier this year showed off a proof-of-concept base station that could feasibly reduce energy consumption on the network by a factor of 1,000.

Slow but Steady

Though the industry has been making some efforts to take up this critical issue that is no more a social responsibility, it has shaped up as business responsibility too. However a large section of the industry still remains untapped. A large section of the telecom industry still sees green initiatives as an obligation, but the threat of global warming is slowly changing this mindset.

The picture is much larger and there's a lot more that service providers can do to save the environment. Developing a green strategy is now considered a critical part of the rural business plan, and is also a win-win situation for the telcos hard-pressed by competition.

Hence foreseeing a strong business case that may outweigh investments in the long run, and there is a strong case for operators to actively consider going green. Steps should be taken to develop a comprehensive ecosystem that can make the usage of alternate/renewable sources of energy commercially viable. It is imperative for operators to have a long-term perspective rather than focus on short-term gains.

Ritu Singh
ritus@cybermedia.co.in