Mobile Industry Heeds Green Calls

Nokia Siemens Networks has received a green award for its efforts in improving the efficiency of its base station products at the recent CTIA Wireless conference.

The recognition given to the mobile networking equipment maker, announced this week, is just one of a number of apparent efforts made by the mobile industry recently to improve energy efficiency.

Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Multiradio Base Station was selected by a panel of judges as the first place winner of the 4th Annual CTIA Emerging Technology Award in the Green Network Hardware and Infrastructure category.

According to Nokia Siemens, the device delivers on its green promises by being able to support GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ and LTE which the company claims eliminates the need to deploy completely new equipment when updating mobile networks.

“When 80 to 90 percent of a mobile operator’s energy is used by their network, we have to take drastic measures to decrease the energy consumption as much as possible,” said Anne Larilahti, head of Environmentally Sustainable Business, Nokia Siemens Networks.

According to Nokia Siemens is only 20 percent of the size and weight of a conventional base station. The most recent version of the device is also 40 percent more efficient than the previous version which already promised a 70 percent reduction in power consumption on traditional base station designs.

Mobile industry body the GSMA, released a report in February this year examining the development of green power usage by mobile operators. The study, Green Power For Mobile, examines how green power such as solar and wind power can be used to power mobile networks in areas which are off the electricity grid. The report also looks at how the mobile industry is increasingly thinking about energy efficiency.

“Telecommunications equipment vendors are making considerable investments in the development of lower power equipment, providing operators with the ability to reduce the cost profile of new sites and retrofitted existing sites,” the report claims.