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A major issue for telecom companies is high operational expenditure due to energy bills. Today, the fuel cost incurred is around 17% of the total expenditure on power for any telecom company. If things are not taken seriously now, India's GDP is expected to face a loss of around 9-13% by 2100, due to global warming.

Green initiatives are being taken up by telecom companies. But green is talked about less because of its ecological attributes and more because of its cost effectivness.

Green technology would help telcos in rural and semi urban areas, where power supply is still a big challenge. This was one of the many thoughts expressed by participants of the Green Telecom 2009 event, held in Delhi and Mumbai on February 24 and March 4, 2009, respectively. The event was an initiative by VOICE&DATA in association with Fortinet and Tech Pacific, to bring the telecom industry together to discuss the various green initiatives that can be adopted to bring down a telcos' fuel spend.

The theme of the event at both the cities was 'Curbing Telcos' Fuel Spent by Riding on Green Technologies'. A good turn up of delegates was witnessed from both the operators and enterprise side. The panel discussion revolved around the best possible ways to cut down the fuel spent and at the same time look toward a greener planet, and saw the participation of most big telecom operators.

Talking Green in Delhi
The welcome note was given by Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, CyberMedia where he talked about how and by what extent are green technologies being implemented by companies across the nation. The keynote address was given by RN Prabhakar, member, Trai, on 'Making Infrastructure Energy Efficient: A SWOT Analysis'.

RN Prabhakar, member, TRAI, at the Green Telecom 2009 event in Delhi	Baburajan K, executive editor, V&D, at the Green Telecom 2009 in Mumbai, giving the vote of thanks

Prabhakar talked of how energy is being consumed with growing infrastructure in the rural areas. The power supply situation in rural area as well as some urban areas is not good, making it important for operators to use diesel gensets to keep the towers and stations up and working. Today the power consumed to manage the telecom tower is near 50-60% on the site of the operational expense.

In his presentation, Vishak Raman, regional director, India & SAARC, Fortinent, spoke on 'Virtualization in Network Security, Hype or Reality?' He talked on how optimization and virtualization would drive revenues in the years to come. Looking at the present economic environment network, virtualization will be the area to lookout for in the years to come.

L-R: Shashi Mohan, director- AS-IV, DoT; Ravinder Jain,CIO Aircel;TV Sri Ram, VP, technology, Bharti Airtel; Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, CyberMedia; S Hariharan, VP-network operations, Tata Communications; Satyen Gupta, chief regulatory officer, BT; and AK Bhargava,PGM (WS) MTNL at the Green Telecom 2009 in Delhi

Members of the panel consisted of TV Sriram, VP, technology, Bharti Airtel; Dr S Hariharan, VP, network operations, Tata Communications; Anil Kumar Bhargava, PGM (WS), MTNL; Ravinder Jain, CIO, Aircel; and Satyen Gupta, chief regulatory officer, British Telecom; and Shashi Mohan, director, DoT. Prasanto K Roy of CyberMedia moderated the event.

Vishak Raman, regional director-India & Saarc, Fortinet making a presentation on 'Virtualization in Network Security: Hype or Reality?'	Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, making a presentation at Green Telecom 2009 in Delhi

The panel discussion revolved around the ways to curtail costs through green initiatives. The importance of infrastructure sharing was one of the highlights of the discussion. Another important aspect is the need for energy audits in enterprises as it will bring down the actual spent. Role of IP based next generation networks was also discussed. Many operators felt that to boost the initiatives taken by operators, carbon credits should be given to operators. Setting up targets for enterprises to cut energy consumption or emission is important today, as pointed out during the discussion. The panel also discussed on how 'work from home' should be promoted as it would bring down carbon footprint.

Nurturing Green: (L-R) Vinay Chawla of Reliance Communications; Sandeep Kolwadkar of BSNL; Jacob Mathew of Idea Cellular; Prasanto K Roy of CyberMedia; Rajeev Singhal of Reliance Communications; Saji Mathew of TTSL; Anirudh Prasad Singh of MTNL; and Kishor Agarwal of Loop Telecom

Green Mumbai
In Mumbai, the panelists consisted of Kishore Agarwal, head, IT and infrastructure, Loop Telecom; Anirudh Prasad Singh, GM, revenues, MTNL; Rajiv Singhal, CIO, Reliance Communications; Sandeep Kolwadkar, DGM, broadband, BSNL; Saji Mathew, AVP, IT, TTSL; Jacob Mathew, VP, Idea Cellular; and Vinay Chawla, Reliance Communications. The panel iscussion was moderated by Prasanto K Roy.

The panel talked on how difficult a power crisis situation can be for telcos, because of which their fuel spent goes up. They also talked of how infrastructure sharing can bring down the cost by distributing it among operators. The panel also talked of use of fuel cells and alternate fuel methods to go green. In the discussion, electricity harness through windmills also came up as a way to curb fuel costs by going green. In data centers 30-40% of cost is due to cooling the heat generated. Strategic placing of the data centers would pull down the cost also.

At the two-city event, it was fairly visible that green technologies have a lot of potential to curb telcos' energy bills. In the days to come, with most enterprises talking of adopting green initiatives, green should be the commercial ethics of any operating enterprise today.

Sunny Sen
sunnys@cybermedia.co.in