executive
insight
Vodafone
Rapid growth in services and emissions in developing markets mean
operators will need reductions in other areas to meet green targets
odafone’s investments in de- as well as jointly build new infrastructure.
V
veloping countries today pro- Vodafone already had an infrastructure
‘In emerging markets
vide its principal sources of sharing deal with Orange in the UK.
subscriber growth. The mo- Those agreements are examples of reducing emissions is
bile operator reported a 54.8% increase passive network sharing, rather than full
in customers in India in the half year sharing of the radio access network. A
nigh on impossible’
ending 30 September 2009, to reach 82.8 shift to active network sharing would cut
million, and a 24% rise in communica- an operator’s overall energy use, although
Chris Burgess
tions use there. “Overall, [India] remains such moves raise regulatory and com-
an attractive market,” said Vittorio Colao, petitive concerns. “We passively network higher, [although] we haven’t set a par-
Vodafone’s CEO, at a results presentation. share. That doesn’t have a huge imapct. ticular target,” says Burgess. “In the next
“Penetration is still just above 40%…[and It is active network sharing that could two years the decrease in the cost of solar
there are] 600 million more Indians that [provide]…a bigger benefit from CO2 [re- power versus grids may cross over and…
need communications.” ductions],” says Burgess. the economics of solar will come very
But the rapid addition of new subscrib- Other operators have started to move close to diesel.”
ers is coupled with an inevitable rise in in that direction: T-Mobile and 3 have an In the longer term, renewable ener-
emissions. “In the developed world ab- agreement to share all aspects of their ra- gies combined with energy efficiencies in
solute emissions reduction is happening dio access networks in the UK through a the network will help to keep operational
today. [But] when you take into account joint venture called Mobile Broadband costs in check. “Cost is clearly a huge
emerging markets, where there is a roll- Network Limited. driver,” Burgess adds.
out of networks, reducing emissions is “Our strategy gives us a hierarchy of Yet widesweeping changes in the in-
nigh on impossible: The physical size of measures we’ll take,” explains Burgess. dustry are making Vodafone’s goals easier
the network is growing and emissions are “Right at the top is improving the energy to realise. “There has been a huge change
growing in line,” says Chris Burgess, cor- efficiency of equipment and the way we in the last two to three years and energy
porate responsibility director at Vodafone. configure the network. Below that we are consumption is really high on the agenda,”
“In emerging markets it will be some time looking at our ability to implement re- says Burgess. “Manufacturers are looking
before we reduce emissions.” newable energy on a site-by-site basis, [be to differentiate on energy efficiency and
Nevertheless, Vodafone aims by 2020 it] solar or wind to try to reduce our re- it is very much part of the [purchasing]
to halve its 2006/07 levels of CO2 emis- liance on the electricity grids and reduce equation. The energy efficiency of equip-
sions globally. What’s more, the operator our reliance on diesel.” ment is going in one direction.”
has a clear measure of where it needs to Like other mobile operators, Vodafone Developments in the broader energy
take action to achieve its goal. “Between continues to rely almost exclusively on market may affect how companies like
80% and 90% of our emissions come from diesel to fuel basestations in emerging Vodafone report their level of CO2 emis-
RANs [radio access networks] and data economies, which either are off-grid or sions, but Burgess does not place great
centres,” says Burgess. As a result, the dependent on an unreliable electric- emphasis on them. “[You] may be buying
company will look to make its network ity grid. “Virtually every basestation in green energy from a grid on a mass scale.
more efficient and gradually add renew- emerging markets will have some sort of There’s a lot of uncertainty about what
able energy sources. diesel,” says Burgess. “Some use it virtu- you can or can’t count,” he says. “At the
In a report compiled with Accenture, ally all the time as the power grid is not bottom [of our emission reduction pri-
Vodafone has outlined how mobile serv- there, others are for back-up purposes.” orities] is the area of carbon offsetting. It’s
ices could save 2.4% of expected EU emis- Burgess cites current work in Africa not something we do; we haven’t ruled it
sions in 2020, or 113 million tonnes of and particularly in India to reduce those out, but it’s right at the bottom. One thing
CO2e, largely through m2m communica- levels, and says: “The general policy is is that it’s an ongoing cost: we prefer a
tions (see overview article). to be working to decrease our depend- better economic [model] and it’s quite a
Other measures will help Vodafone to ence on diesel.” But like other operators, controversial way of meeting the target.”
achieve its own goals. Last March it signed Vodafone is waiting for the price of re- Vodafone is not alone in its views on
a deal with Telefonica to share mobile net- newable energy to fall before it embarks the matter. In November, pre-eminent
works in Germany, Spain, Ireland and the on widespread installation. climate change scientist James Hansen re-
UK. The 10-year agreement will see the “In the next five years [the use of re- stated his vehement opposition to carbon
operators share network sites and masts, newable energies] will be significantly market trading schemes. n
18 TOTAL TELECOM ENVIRONMENT SPECIAL
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