KOCHI: At a time when the telecom sector in the country is making all efforts to achieve the ‘Green Telecom Standards’ in sync with the global level by 2015, the operators in the state too are lending wholesome support to the eco-friendly initiative.
In a bid to achieve the goal, telecom operators are adopting various practices, including lowering carbon emission, usage of renewable energy sources, better waste disposal practices and adhering technology to reduce the possible green house gas emission.
Green telecom refers to the ‘greening of telecom networks by using various methodologies like manufacturing of green telecom equipment, environment-friendly design of telecom buildings and safe telecom waste disposal.’
The information and communication technology infrastructure contributes around 0.83 per cent of the carbon footprint globally and it is poised to increase to 1.43 per cent by 2020.
The share of telecom in the total carbon dioxide emission in India is around 9 per cent.“More than 90 per cent of our base stations are located in the regions where availability of grid electricity is unreliable.
These base stations are, herefore, heavily reliant on diesel generators to ensure round-the-clock availability of communication services. We have made our base stations greener by reducing energy demands and improving efficiency.
We have actively engaged with tower companies to share leading practices in technology implementation to reach the goal of Green Telecom,” said a top official of Vodafone.
Currently, 70 per cent of the approximately 4,00,000 mobile towers in India face electrical grid outages for more than eight hours a day.
Virtual Link
In order to reduce the usage of electricity and to bring down carbon emission, the companies operating in the state are now connected virtually than physically.
Shifting to renewable energy sources like solar energy is one of the major steps taken by the telecom companies in the state, said sources with Airtel.
“In tandem with the national efforts to become a green telecom provider, the company takes steps to use solar energy for its operations.“Also, novel initiatives have been taken up in waste disposal and operations.
“ The company has also a corporate decision to switch 32.to green towers by reducing the carbon footprint,” they said.
Switching centres host the exchange that controls telecommunication traffic between different mobile phone and fixed line networks.
These centres typically house a variety of equipment that requires cooling and needs to be powered at all times, thus consuming considerable amount of energy.