• Telcos are desperate to reduce their network power consumption
• Doing so will help them to meet sustainability targets and lower their operating costs
• The key to achieving greater energy efficiency is to invest in green network gear, according to our recent poll
• They should also pressure their suppliers to be greener via their procurement processes

Telcos need to rethink their infrastructure investment strategies and spend more on cutting-edge technologies that can help them meet sustainability targets as well as lower their energy bills, according to the results of a recent TelecomTV poll. 

Improving energy efficiency has always been important to telco infrastructure teams as they plan and deploy their latest fixed and mobile networks, but never more so than now as energy costs are higher than ever and sustainability goals are such an important part of every digital service provider’s strategy. 

So during our recent Green Networks sessions, which took place at our DSP Leaders World Forum event in Windsor, we ran a poll to ask our in-person and online audience the following question – How can DSPs become more energy efficient?

Respondents were able to select all the options they deemed relevant.

It’s clear from the results that network operators need to rethink their investment strategies, as 66% of all those who voted selected the option ‘Invest in innovative technology solutions’. Of course, that can only happen if network technology suppliers are actually developing innovative solutions that can help DSPs to cut their energy consumption, but there’s increasing evidence (thank goodness!) that this is the case. 

And not only should DSPs steer their capex budgets towards greener infrastructure – our respondents believe they need to pressure the vendor community to do more to deliver that much-needed innovation, as 51% of those who voted in the poll believe network operators should ‘Include strict power-consumption KPIs in their procurement guidelines’. 

And there’s more the DSP community can be doing. According to 43% of our respondents, network operators should ‘Share their energy-efficiency data for industry benchmarking’, a move that would be useful to industry bodies such as the NGMN, which is aiming to help DSPs assess the sustainability of their networks in a standardised way – see How green is your network? NGMN offers KPIs to find out.

There was just a little less support for the option ‘Share more active network elements’, though that is something that more and more operators are doing (in addition, of course, to sharing passive infrastructure such as towers), while only 24% of respondents felt that extending hardware lifecycles is a good way for DSPs to become more energy efficient. 

Network energy efficiency is one of the most important focus areas for the industry right now and something that TelecomTV is dedicated to tracking and analysing through our editorial coverage and summits. Watch out for news of upcoming events focused on this critical topic. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV