Do you think green is all about hype and little action? Are the operators
considering green options seriously?
Going green is a win-win situation for customers. They can significantly
reduce their carbon footprint, save money on energy bills and build a
responsible company brand that consumers are increasingly responding to, putting
importance while choosing their operator.
We already see initial investments paying off within 18 months in some cases.
After the site is up and running, the operational costs are practically zero.
When reducing environmental impact, the approach of Nokia Siemens Networks is
to look at the whole lifecycle of the product: from manufacturing to use to
end-of-life.Looking at this, we have put our key focus on reducing the CO2
emissions of our equipments during their use time, as this is where 95% of our
CO2 emissions originate.
What green options do you suggest to operators in a power-starved region?
In rural areas, where advanced infrastructure such as a power grid is not
readily available, renewable energy can be used for network equipments as a
power source instead of diesel generators.
Nokia Siemens Networks has been working on alternative energy sources since
1981. The company is increasingly installing sites that are run by renewable
energy. Currently, base station sites running on renewable energy sources have
been installed to approximately 30 countries.
In this season of slowdown, what are some quick tips for the operators to
go green on infrastructure?
We support three-quarters of the world's top 100 operators, providing mobile
and fixed network infrastructure solutions for a more energy-efficient and
connected world. We suggest operators to go for energy-efficient solutions that
cost less to operate and enable telecommunications services that can help their
end-users reduce their carbon footprints.
Do you have any interesting business models for the operators that support
green initiatives?
NSN takes a holistic view on environmental issues and energy efficiency across
our solution portfolio, both in mobile and fixed networks. According to ABI
research, energy constitutes the third biggest component of a mobile operators
opex and over 80% of it comes from network infrastructure.
Our solutions address four main elements. These include minimizing the number
of base station sites, minimizing the need for air conditioning to cool the
sites, using the latest base station technology, and deploying software features
that optimize the use of radio access for wireless communications.
Our portfolio has radio access energy efficiency solutions including products
such as the Flexi Base Station which help cut energy consumption up to 70% at
site level and also improve energy efficiency in existing base station networks
up to 35-40% at site level.
Infrastructure sharing can be a great help to operators in cutting down on
their opex. Why do you think there is such a cold response to this concept then?
Now that operators are moving increasingly to the rural and low income
markets, it is likely that network/infrastructure sharing will become more
popular.
Network sharing solution offers significant network capex and opex savings
for the operators. Depending on the different network sharing methods and
network scenarios, savings up to 40% can be achieved. Additional opex savings,
facilitated operations and assured network quality are the benefits of having a
'neutral' 3rd party which would manage the shared network based on service level
agreements. Today, both shared networks being in commercial operations are
implemented with Nokia Siemens Networks technology and Multi-operator RAN
sharing is a unique and successfully proven solution since 2004.
Heena Jhingan
heenaj@cybermedia.co.in
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