5G energy efficiencies: green is the new black

To help tackle climate change and reduce network operating costs, energy saving has become a priority for the telecoms industry. While mobile networks bring near-ubiquitous access, convenience and entertainment, greater use of smartphones for video and other bandwidth-hungry services over LTE and 5G means energy consumption will rise in the absence of intervention.

This latest report from GSMA Intelligence assesses the imperative to reduce emissions in the 5G era. It examines how networks consume energy and how site, RAN and network-wide innovations can help boost efficiency. The report shows that in an effort to put teeth behind public commitments on energy efficiency, companies such as Verizon, Vodafone and Telefonica have implemented KPIs and reporting targets. However, the analysis also cautions that barriers such as a lack of data harvesting persist to executing the necessary transformation more broadly across the sector.