Telecom Choices for a Carbon Lean Economy
Telecommunications have the capability to deliver societal solutions which can contribute to a transition to a global carbon lean economy. It is estimated by WWF (previously World Wildlife Fund) and ETNO (European Telecommunication Network Operators) that societal behavior changes using telecommunications could result in a reduction of energy in society that is 10 times greater than the amount of energy required to produce and deliver telecoms services.

Ericsson estimates that societal energy use and CO2 emissions could be reduced by 5-20% between now and 2020. Examples of telecom applications that can support behavioral change are technologies for facilitating remote working and video conferencing that reduce travel and the need for large, energy intensive workplaces, and energy monitoring systems that remotely control heating and lighting, bringing energy efficiencies into the home and workplace.

As an example, a new study by Ericsson and Australian operator Telstra on Telstra’s Next G™ network, which was supplied and installed by Ericsson, reveals that business users of the new mobile broadband service reduced their carbon footprint by typically 5-10% (and by as much as 17%), and improved their productivity. It confirms that many business users of the new HSPA-enabled 3G network are able to reduce their kilometers traveled, as well as the need to print documents, resulting in a reduced carbon footprint for their work activities.

Energy costs account for as much as half of a mobile operators’ operating expenses, so radio network solutions that improve energy-efficiency are not only good for the environment, they also make commercial sense for operators and support sustainable, profitable business.

Ericsson has a long tradition of life-cycle assessment (LCA) and has been using this methodology and in-house competence to develop environmental understanding and measure improvements in the energy-efficiency and overall environmental performance of its products and solutions
for more than a decade.

This comprehensive approach enables measurement of another key indicator, which is the annual CO2 emissions per subscriber on Ericsson networks. This figure includes the phone as well as what was required to produce, deliver, and operate the network to provide the service. Ericsson’s LCA found that the annual CO2 emissions per average GSM subscriber have reduced to about 25 kg down from around 180 kg for first-generation networks in 1985. The 25 kg CO2 equates to the same emissions created by driving an average European car on the motorway for around 1 hour (125 km per 10.5 l gasoline).

The average 3G subscriber is about 30 kg CO2, however, the functionality of mobile phones has increased dramatically over the past 2 decades, transforming the mobile phone to a device capable of far more than simple voice calls. Subscribers can perform many more services for a reduced CO2 impact compared with previous generations of mobile devices.

The first GSM data services had a maximum data throughput of 9.6 Kbps. In today’s 3G networks, data rates of up to 40 Mbps can be achieved with the addition of HSPA. LTE has been demonstrated at 160 Mbps, and the future goal is more than 300 Mbps over mobile. A key element of the delivery of this CO2 reduction is the energy-efficiency of radio base station products.

Source: Ericsson. www.ericsson.com.

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What’s 1-2% Among Friends?
Estimates suggest that telecoms can achieve a 1-2% reduction in global carbon emissions by implementing green initiatives within their operations. However, the telecom industry is expected to enable other businesses to reduce emissions by up to 5 times this amount. Is it any wonder that going green now ranks high on the agenda for service providers today?

Source: Ovum Research. www.ovum.com.

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A Green TV?
Although awareness of green consumer electronic (CE) offerings lags behind sectors like household products and autos, 33% of consumers expect to make some type of green CE purchase within 2 years, according to data released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

Going Green: An Examination of the Green Trend and What it Means to Consumers and the CE Industry finds that 89% of households want their next television to be more energy efficient, writes Environmental Leader (via Retailer Daily).

Price and features remain the primary purchase drivers for CE products, but green attributes will increasingly be a factor, the study found; 53% of consumers say they would be willing to pay some type of premium for televisions with green attributes.

The study also finds consumers want an easy way to determine whether a product meets environmental standards, such as logos and descriptions printed on the product packaging.

Among the key findings of the CEA study, which surveyed an online sample of 960 adults:
• Familiarity with green terminology is high for established terms such as “recyclable” (86%) or “energy efficiency” (76%), but lower for emerging terms such as “carbon footprint” (33%).
• Awareness of appliances with green attributes tops awareness of computers with similar attributes (50% vs. 17%). This also stems from how these 2 product categories are sold, with consumers having more experience evaluating the energy efficiency of appliance purchases than PC purchases.
• The top 5 attributes that consumers feel green CE should possess: 1. recyclable packaging (68%), 2. recyclable product (64%), 3. energy-efficient product (62%), 4. packaging made with recycled materials (57%), and 5. biodegradable packaging (53%).
• 10% of consumers indicate having purchased some type of green CE device over the past 12 months, and 6% have purchased a green CE accessory product. Green CE purchases are dominated by early adopters (18% CE device purchase, 12% CE accessory purchase).

Source: Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). www.ce.org.

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China Mobile Field Trial Shows 24% Power Reduction
Alcatel-Lucent announced a significant enhancement to its GSM/EDGE mobile networking portfolio that can reduce power consumption by up to 27 percent, offering dramatic energy and cost savings for mobile operators. The power reductions were demonstrated during January 2009 field trials with China Mobile in the country’s Jiangsu province. On average, a 24% power saving has been achieved.

This new feature, Dynamic Power Save (DPS), is for Alcatel-Lucent’s GSM/EDGE base stations. It does not impact the quality of service provided to subscribers, not just at night, but also during high-traffic periods. Because this is a software upgrade, this enhancement can be installed on all Alcatel-Lucent multi-standard base stations deployed since 1999 - some 500,000 stations.

This Power Save capability involves switching off the power amplifier in GSM transceivers.
It enables the base station to monitor traffic activity on the network, and when there is no information to transmit, even for very short periods of time, the amplifier is switched off. This process offers substantial cost savings at night when calling volumes are naturally lower, but also, because of the sensitivity of the monitoring techniques, considerable power savings are available during busy times as well. These savings are obtained without any increases in call blocking or reductions in packet data throughput, so the service quality remains high.

Source: Alcatel-Lucent. www.alcatel-lucent.com.

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AT&T Embraces Green STBs
AT&T U-verse operating companies announced that AT&T U-verseSM TV is one of the first video service providers to receive certification for its set-top boxes under the U.S. EPA’s Energy Star program for video providers. With the certification, new AT&T U-verse TV customers will begin to receive Motorola and Cisco receivers that feature the Energy Star label. All deployed U-verse TV receivers, including those in customers’ homes today without the label, already exceed the efficiency requirements. AT&T U-verse TV was the first video service provider to commit to deploying set-top boxes that meet the stringent Energy Star standards in May 2008. Because of the inherent benefits of advanced Internet Protocol (IP) technology, U-verse TV customers IP-based set-top boxes are more energy-efficient than other digital set-top boxes. AT&T U-verse receivers conform to energy efficiency requirements that are 36 percent more stringent than cable set-top box requirements. The improved efficiency is achieved, in part, because IP receivers don’t have tuners.

Source: AT&T. www.uverse.att.com.

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