GigaOM Pro

Summary:

This Pike Research report focuses on the direct impact of green technologies and practices as applied to mobile telecommunications networks, with an emphasis on the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from network operations. Within mobile networks, base stations and switching centers consume 70-80 percent of an operator’s network energy usage, so improvements here are critical. As operators concentrate on improvements in radio frequency (RF) amplifiers, new network architectures and topologies, fresh air cooling solutions and the use of sustainable energy solutions for off-grid locations, Pike Research believes that a significant opportunity exists to dramatically improve the efficiency and environmental impact of mobile networks. Our analysis indicates that there are sufficient technology and process improvements that could reduce 2013 infrastructure emissions by at least 101 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), a decrease of 42 percent from business-as-usual (BAU) trendlines. Other key factors supporting this trend include government emissions mandates in most parts of the world, along with operators’ increasing shift away from capex-only business case analysis to a total cost of ownership (TCO) approach for purposes of calculating return on investment (ROI) for major infrastructure upgrades. This report examines some of the key opportunities and business case scenarios for achieving these reductions.