Dear beloved Wireless Carriers, Please go Green and take us with you

This post is not really a Washington, DC thing unless you are in the telecom space or you lobby for a telecom carrier. The fact is that all the US telecom and mobile service providers have a strong lobby in our nation’s capital, I figured that I would give them and you my 2 cents on telecom operators and the path they should take to go GREEN. I am a telecom geek anyway!

So, if you are a wireless operator or you are lobbying for them, I hope you are taking notice.

I’ve been following this for years since my virginity broke at the age of 22. Not sure what the connection was, but, yes 22! depressing isn’t it? Not the non-green thing, the virgin till 22 thing Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a retard or geek in my teen. The thing is, I was 13 when I realized girls were different than boys By the time, I was gonna a do something about it, an Islamic revolution happened…Then, there was a war with Iraq… Believe me sir! I knocked on every door – cat, dog, goat, every door! nothing!!! So, I was around 21 1/2 when I got off the boat, landed in this great new country of mine, USA, and finally… It was a beautiful goat in a barn in some ville town in West Virginia on July 28, 1985 at 2:38:45 p.m EST. No wonder they say Virginia for lovers! I still carry her picture in my wallet. Here she is aaah…Just look at that smile —>

Anyway, back to the green technology. This has been a very interesting topic since the first Earth Day in 1970 when I was only a little boy. However, momentum behind environmentally friendly public policy and business practices has dramatically picked up over the past 15 year or so. There has been more focus on it since the rise of Obama administration in our beloved Washington, DC. Not to mention the global recognition of the need to protect the environment for future generations has also increasingly become a central issue that is now shaping behaviors in both the public and private sectors.

The good news is, subscribers of all age groups are now expressing awareness of and interest in ecofriendly device and service incentives. Such issues were not even a talking point a couple of years back. According to a report by ABI Research, almost half of North American mobile consumers are likely to be influenced by suppliers’ green credentials when buying telecom services or devices. Of 1,000 respondents:

- 41 percent said they would be significantly more likely to buy services from telecom providers with green credibility,
- 45 percent said they would be more likely to buy devices from telecom companies that are seen as green.

Respondents were asked whether they would be more likely to buy mobile services or mobile handsets from an operator with “green” initiatives, described as one that “gives money to organizations seeking to help the environment, actively employs programs that reduce its carbon footprint and buys network equipment from green equipment vendors.”

So, what can the wireless carriers do to reach their ambitious goal of cutting carbon emissions?

Starting with the consumers, I think it would be very effective for them to simply:

1. Enforce their retail stores to educate their consumers about battery disposal and the accumulation of e-waste as the consumers purchase the service. If consumers are unaware of the environmental issues surrounding mobile devices and services then the industry should increase its efforts to get the message across.

2. Encourage their consumer to review and pay their bills online. Although, such solutions have already been implemented, they have not been widely used. I ran a poll on both my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. I asked whether they pay their telecom bill online or via mail. Out of 2300 people who responded, only 140 reported that they pay online.

Speaking of online vs. paper, I think it will also help of the carriers also start doing their annual report on their Web site instead of printing thousands of paper copies.

Well, that was just the consumer side. Not sure what they have done on their core infrastructure side, but It is very crucial to start making it green too by:

1. Figuring out a way of going mid-term OPEX (Operational Expenditure) as supposed to short term CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) without laying off any of their employees and of course finding the right solution to overcome the challenges related to

a) Efficient power amplifiers that stretch energy input as far as possible,

b) Efficient cooling and heating mechanisms that obviate the need for power-hungry air conditioning and heating systems. Remote radio heads put transmit and receive functions close to the antenna,

c) Preventing energy loss down long cables.

2. Utilizing renewable power sources such as solar or wind energy to power their network elements. Energy consumption is one of the leading drivers of operating expenses. Reliable access to electricity is limited in many countries – particularly developing countries that are currently the high-growth markets for telecommunications anyway. So, why not solar or wind?

3. Cutting Operations & Maintenance costs by eliminating diesel generators from their core network elements, Base Stations, VSATs etc. without impacting the equipments performance – to keep OPEX costs in check and ensure profitability, I am sure they are fully aware of the importance for base stations to run as efficiently as possible.

4. Eliminating their traditional tower lights which consume a lot of energy, not to mention they don’t even last that long

5. Start thinking like the telecom operators in mature markets where energy efficiency is equally critical. Just because access to power in North America is easy, it is not necessary to continue using them like they are used to. They don’t come cheap anyway.

6. Working closely with their vendors to help them with their green initiatives to get ahead of the curve.

I do realize it is a difficult task – particularly, tough call for their shareholders whose investment creates the cash flow, but I am sure if they come up with a formula to benefit both the environment and the consumers, it will be a big payoff for the shareholders too.

Considering the strong focus our new administration has put on the Green environment, maybe it is time for the telecom carriers to add the government stimulus package as part of their CAPEX or OPEX. What I am saying is the Government has to provide the additional financing to close the financial gap or shortage. In fact, I believe the federal government has allocated economic stimulus package for telecom carriers to upgrade and repair their national power grid alongside more traditional funding. So, I guess that should take care of the fear from the shareholders. Our government just has to make sure the operators do not use a penny of the fund for throwing lawyers and lobbyists at Washington. Or, maybe the stimulus money should be given to the local government and they distributed it to the regional operators. It might be handled more efficiently.

I would love to hear from any of you in this space or you know of a telecom carrier who has committed to do this, so I get a better sense of the financial upside, the impact to the EBITDA, ROI, regulatory and non-regulatory bodies involved in green telecom.

How best the integration can be done for all these is another interesting challenge.