Green is the new black - part 1
Did you know that every day in the U.S. enough rubbish is produced to equal the weight of the Empire State Building?
And London alone currently generates around 44 million tonnes of carbon per year?
These are the sorts of statistics we are continually bombarded with, as the world becomes more environmentally aware.
Rising carbon taxes, social pressures and steep political-driven targets to slash emissions have placed the ‘Green’ issue at the forefront of product developers minds all over the globe.
When considering the rapid evolution of mobile networks, it is imperative that providers do not lose sight of the environmental and CSR issues that operators face, while expanding networks to successfully cope with the rapid increase in demand for capacity.
We know that mobile broadband demand is continuing to grow exponentially, as a recent report from Analysys Mason confirms.
This report states that as revenue from traditional mobile voice and messaging services declines or stagnates, mobile broadband will be one of the primary revenue drivers for European operators in the next five years.
So, solutions that tackle both the need for an increase in capacity as well as maintaining a green stance can only be a good thing, right?
When looking at microwave backhaul in this context, point-to-multipoint (PMP) offers a significant reduction in carbon footprint that operators simply cannot afford to ignore, when compared to alternatives such as point-to-point (PTP).
It does this while offering the capability to cope with the capacity increases of the future.
We'll be posting three articles on "Green is the new black", which will look a little more closely at exactly how PMP can help settle the green conscience.
PMP, and more specifically a network built using CBNL’s VectaStar solution, requires half the number of radios for deployment compared to an equivalent PTP microwave network.
This huge reduction in radio requirement coupled with the technical advancements in the unit results in substantial benefits throughout the entire product lifecycle. Half the radios means half the amount of raw materials required for unit production, saving both the resources themselves and the energy required to produce them.
After deployment, as half as many radios are required as for the operation of an equivalent PTP network, a VectaStar backhaul network reduces energy consumption by 50% eliminating in excess of a staggering 354,030 tonnes worth of CO2 per year during the manufacturing and installation process alone.
And not only that but, due to the all-outdoor zero footprint configuration, the network eliminates 100% of the energy consumption associated with the cooling of the units too.
We will move onto the figures associated with the usage of a PMP network after deployment in the next issue, but to conclude Graham Peel, CEO of CBNL, made the observation that:
"we already know that large operator groups such as France Telecom select their future telecoms technologies and suppliers based on minimising their environmental impact"
as confirmed by Telecom TV last week. Proving that green really is the new black.