Introduction

Background on Mobile Operators and commitments to climate goals

Market Demand for “Net Zero” Telecom

Consumer demand for climate policy
European customers
Other world regions
What if operators don’t meet their commitments?

Government Regulations and Pressure

Roles of multiple organizations:

▪ The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
▪ The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

▪ The Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI)
▪ Science Based Targets Initative (SBTi)
▪ The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
▪ The International Telecommunication Union
and others

How governments will put it all together
The EU’s “Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) How regulations will be settled

EXPERT INSIGHT: How Sustainability Goals will Impact your RAN business 3

How Energy is Consumed in a Mobile Network

Analysis of how a telecom company consumes energy overall Analysis of the radio access network
The most significant actions
Analysis of energy efficiency for 5G vs LTE

How 5G and 6G will Help

The potential for 6G to save more power Semiconductor improvements
Power amplifier improvements
CMOS in processors

Wider frequency bands and higher order MIMO
How these improvements scale to 6G bands at 7 GHz, 12 GHz, 140 GHz

The Impact of AI/ML, SON and Open RAN Software

How AI/ML saves power in a network
Per-user optimization compared with per-site optimization Overall estimate of savings possible from AI/ML
Examples of ORAN xApps and rApps to save power

all possible ways for an xApp to optimize power consumption for the nearly infinite variety of users.

Overall Power Savings in the Network

Calculation of how multiple factors will combine for power savings

EXPERT INSIGHT: How Sustainability Goals will Impact your RAN business 4

How much power savings we will create through technology in the next 10 years

Conclusions

Power savings compared with “Scope 3” savings in other industrial sectors
How much energy is saved through automation compared with 5G network operations Analysis for a drone example: energy savings for package delivery compared with trucks Overall conclusion about the impact of climate policy on the radio market

Illustrations:
Figure 1: Energy breakdown for a Mobile Operator
Figure 2: Energy Efficiency and its Relationship to Spectral Efficiency
Figure 3: Energy Efficiency of LTE Compared to 5G (kB/Joule)
Figure 4: Comparing the Energy Consumption of Drone Delivery vs. Delivery Trucks