Will telcos follow Big Tech in pursuit of a greener life?

Microsoft has stated its green ambitions, delivering a plan to be carbon neutral by 2030, halving the carbon emissions of the business.

By the mid-point of the decade, Microsoft plans to have its own direct carbon emissions almost down to zero, while it will work to drive the same efficiencies through its supply and value chain. The business will also invest $1 billion to accelerate the development of carbon reduction, capture and removal technologies.

“While the world will need to reach net zero, those of us who can afford to move faster and go further should do so,” said Microsoft President Brad Smith. “That’s why today we are announcing an ambitious goal and a new plan to reduce and ultimately remove Microsoft’s carbon footprint.

“By 2030 Microsoft will be carbon negative, and by 2050 Microsoft will remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975.”

While many executives might claim to have a green agenda, the technology, media and telecoms industries are being led by the US Big Tech giants. This is one example, though Apple claims to have transitioned to 100% renewable energy for the electricity it uses in its offices, retail stores and data centres in 43 countries. In the last three years, Apple has reduced its carbon footprint by 35%.

The question is whether telcos have the same attitude as Big Tech in driving towards a more sustainable future. And according to Paul Gowans, Wireless Strategy Director for Viavi, there are some significant business benefits as well as corporate social responsibility.

Gowans pointed out that the network is energy guzzling asset for every telco, and depending on where you are, this can have a very different impact on the spreadsheets. For example, the world average price is $0.15 per kWh, though this decreases to $0.11 per kWh in South Korea and increases to $0.35 per kWh in Germany, more than 3X the cost. The economics of running a network vary, therefore the appetite for increasing the energy efficiency of networks does also.

There are of course numerous ways to tackle this issue, though Gowans pointed to an algorithm written by Viavi which powers down certain parts of the network during certain times of the day. It seems like the most obvious answer, but powering down certain cell sites in residential, commuter towns between 9-5 or the Square Mile in London over the weekend, can have an impact on the bottom line without impacting customer experience; most of the users will be elsewhere.

This is where green and clean technologies might make more of an impression for the budget holders at telecoms companies; appealing to the wallet might be much more successful than appealing to their sense of social responsibility. Their primary objective is to make more money for shareholders after all.

With 5G pressurising balance sheets, and for some scaled telcos with vast numbers of cell sites such as China Mobile or Verizon, introducing green strategies is not just a hippy-style to save the environment, there is could be some serious cost efficiencies to be realised.