SAARC : Lagging Behind

When the entire world is talking of green telecom solutions, how could the
SAARC nations be left behind? After seeing deployments of green telecom
solutions by Indian operators, V&D takes a look at which direction our
neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh are going in.

Though adopting green technologies has not been as large as that in India,
SAARC operators in the region have built the foundation. Pakistan is in a better
position than many other neighbouring countries. Most SAARC countries are facing
energy shortage and high oil and electricity prices add to the pressure. The
focus of SAARC operators is to curb opex.

In India very few technologies have remained untouched by the green wave. The
evolution and adoption of these technologies increases the standard and helps
increase revenue.

Slow Adopters

The non-availability of power and other energy resources are forcing telcos
to opt for green solutions. In many SAARC nations the impact of green
initiatives has not been that strong but the implementations are slowly
happening. As 3G comes to play in almost all these nations, it would bring an
explosion of data and companies will be bound to have better networks and better
managed data centers-more reasons to adopt green.

After India it is Pakistan that is big on green, as compared to nations like
Bangladesh and Nepal. The Government of Pakistan is strongly pursuing green
telecom initiatives, although its main focus is limited to towers. However,
there is not much attention being paid toward controlling pollution in the form
of CO2, noise or heat.

Things are set to change though. Green has now become a way to increase the
topline and bottomline for operators in Pakistan.

In Pakistan, next generation network (NGN) is the key driver of green
initiatives. “The operators are deploying more and more NGNs and using IP
transmission modes, which will help use the equipments to its maximum and,
therefore, reduction in heat and noise emission as well as lesser use of fossil
fuels,” says Ahmad Nadeem Syed, director, interconnect and regulatory economics,
Mobilink.

The existing alternate energy resources are not environment-friendly and are
costly to operate. There is a huge potential of telecom growth in the SAARC
region and almost all operators are expanding their networks to rural or
underdeveloped areas where there is no grid supply.

Another major telecom provider in Pakistan, Telenor Pakistan also agrees that
electricity is a major problem area and it is very important to look into the
matter. “We are using solar and diesel hybrid solutions as part of our green
power for mobile networks. In addition we are also looking at other hybrid
solutions, ie, wind and solar which represents a financially feasible power
alternative outside of the initial start-up costs; operational and maintenance
costs are practically zero; and it drastically reduces the opex costs. This is
very important as diesel bills and theft issues will be capped by this option as
well,” says Irfan Khan, executive vice president, Telenor Pakistan.

A Long Way to Go

In Bangladesh the green initiatives are still at a very nascent stage and
operators are only exploring the possibilities of implementation.

Nizam Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, chief project coordinator, Dhaka Telephone
Company says, “We can start with energy saving lamps, using heat resistant walls
in rooftop base stations to save on electrical energy required for
air-conditioning, etc. In the meantime we may plan a suitable environment-modelling
program.”

Most service providers in Bangladesh are still at the planning stage. A lot
of seminars would be held on green to take concrete steps. In Dhaka Telephone
Company, where green implementation is limited to energy saving lamps and using
heat resistant walls, technological implementation have still a long way to go.
Having said that, it cannot be denied that it is a positive start, one that
Indian operators can learn from as well.

Tower-sharing and going for greener base stations is another field where the
Bangladesh regulatory is laying emphasis on. “The regulators here have already
set up the framework for infrastructure sharing which adds to a more
environment-friendly telco in general but the uptake of the policy by the
players is still to be seen. Probably, more significantly the climate of the
region is very conducive for switching to greener solutions in terms of powering
up BTS towers and BSC operations,” says Fida Haq, CIO, Mango Teleservices.

Not only Bangladesh, but Pakistan is also looking toward solar powered BTS.
Recently, a Pakistan telecom provider Warid Telecom signed a deal with Huawei to
deploy its first ever solar powered macro BTS.

As countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have a huge rural base, it
is important for service providers to look into the rural side also as a large
potential subscribers base lies here.

Infrastructure Going Green

A strong telecommunications infrastructure is critical in running businesses
which create a significant contribution toward an enabling economy. If the
enablement isn't happening through the power grid, companies will be forced to
look at other avenues. Over the long term, companies will be able to better
understand the workings of solar power and use it as an effective means of
generating environmentally-friendly power. Companies have also started to look
at technologies that would play a vital role to cut costs and at the same time,
aid to environment.

Voice and video are perhaps the two best examples that show the seriousness
of companies towards green. The use of voice and video would mean lesser travel,
thus lesser usage of fossil fuels.

“Operators in Pakistan are also looking into voice services to leverage new
customer base where they do not have a presence. It is likely to benefit the
future sales directly arising from the newly stimulated demand,” says Irfan
Khan.

Though things are at a nascent stage in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the new era
of green technologies has come and a lot of deployment will be seen soon. The
major problem with the entire Indian sub-continent continues to be polices and
red tapes. Any new policy would go under such a long procedure that it would end
its vigor by the time it gets executed. In Bangladesh the condition is such that
the policies are yet to be even framed by regulators. Things are still better in
Pakistan where mobile operators are working to introduce mobile commerce
products and services, which will indirectly help achieve green telecom
objectives. Various operators have signed tower sharing agreements on their own.
The Government of Pakistan is in the process of formulating a policy with
respect to making tower sharing mandatory for operators. And as the country is
going through enormous energy crisis green becomes a must.

Sunny Sen & Gagandeep Kaur

sunnys@cybermedia.co.in