Mobile network operators are starting to transition to cleaner energy, and it’s as much about saving green as it is about going green. With power costs rising and demand for power skyrocketing, network operators face sharply rising costs. According to Digital Power Group, an hour of video watched each week on a mobile device consumes more network power annually than two new refrigerators use in a year.
“If you look at the network infrastructure that the carriers have in the marketplace today … this TDM infrastructure is a real source of power drain and power cost,” said Genband CEO David Walsh. “These are power hogs. When this stuff was installed 20 years ago the rates were a third of what they are today, so it wasn’t really an issue, but now with power rates increasing and the customer base not growing on this TDM infrastructure, they’re stuck in this fixed cost that’s actually going up.”
Walsh sees opportunity in the carriers’ power pinch – the well-known telecom dealmaker has lined up a group of banks to finance network upgrades based on the projected energy savings. But in order to qualify for the financing, operators need to purchase Genband’s network equipment. “We are the only company that has all the components that are required to be able to do this upgrade,” said Walsh. “A lot of our competitors, they have an applications server, a soft switch, a media gateway, a session border control, they only have a piece of the solution, which leaves the customer in the position where they have to become the general contractor.”
“All these acquisitions we’ve done over the past several years, this is what we’ve been gearing towards, to be able to offer a complete network migration solution,” said Walsh. “Since the power costs are so high and the cooling costs are so high, we can give a carrier a complete new infrastructure on a portion of the savings that they achieve by eliminating the old technology.”
IP infrastructure is just one part of the solution for carriers moving to greener power. Verizon is investing in solar panels and fuel cells, which use chemicals and natural gas to produce energy. The carrier says that a switching center powered by fuel cell stayed online throughout Hurricane Sandy last year, helping the operator restore service to customers faster. AT&T is also investing in fuel cells — California fuel cell maker Bloom Energy said last year that the carrier had become its largest non-utility customer.
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