For those of you not in Australia and may not be aware of this, the government here introduced a carbon tax / pricing scheme last weekend and it prompted me to have a think about how legislation like this might affect wireless/mobile telcos.
The most obvious area is in power for sites. Power consumption of base stations is certainly not as bad as it used to be but it’s still a twofold problem; firstly getting the power to the site, particularly in regional areas and secondly the operational cost of the power bill, be it either from a power supplier or in fuel for gensets. This ,I think, has to be the main thrust of using renewable energy sources in Telco networks in that it’s not really about carbon taxes at all but simply about getting reliable supply to the site and trimming back the opex.
Regardless if its due to a price on carbon or just good operational business management, reducing costs and emissions has to be a good thing – it’s a well documented statistic that in India the mobile/wireless industry is one of the top five consumers of diesel fuel in the country so it doesn’t take a scientist to see the savings that even cutting fuel bills in half would make to network profits especially with the low ARPU’s there. Here in Australia most sites are connected to mains power – why? Simply because they have always been and solar is only really getting a look in at remote locations where the cost of installing power lines is frightening. It’s the same principal though – if smarter solutions are deployed that save power then the network operational costs go down and profits rise.
It’s important to understand as well that there is no single solution to this – adopting just renewable energy such as solar is not the whole answer – it needs to be a complete rethink on parameters of site designs. A “whole of site” solution that involves wireless base stations that are heat ruggedized to a higher level, the use of free cooling units and fans, the use of shade (really cheap, really effective!!) through the range of solar panels and wind turbines powering batteries to keep the site running at a consistent and optimal power level. In some cases this might be enough but if it is combined with a hybrid solution of either a cut into the mains or a genset start-up when the battery levels reach a predetermined level then the site will run very reliably with significant savings in energy costs. There will be less emissions and less carbon used. This should be at all sites, including urban rooftops, IBC’s and not just remote or rural sites – just the mix of solutions used may change to suit the site conditions.
All these solutions will be presented in detail at the “Smart Power for Smart Telecom Networks” conference and workshops in Sydney on 12 -13 September – http://bit.ly/mdCOWa
Of course in more rural areas using some surplus power to run common good infrastructure such as water pumps and the like is always a good side effect as well.
So where do I think carbon pricing/ taxes will impact us in the world of wireless and mobile networks – simple answer is steel towers. The steel industry in Australia is getting compensation for a while due to the carbon pricing but most towers here are imported from Malaysia or China – so when these countries introduce a price on carbon, which they will, then steel prices will rise and so will tower costs. In India this will have a bigger effect, depending upon when a carbon price / tax is introduced, given the huge numbers of towers currently manufactured there for the domestic and export markets.
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