The latest update on Ericsson’s mobility report indicates that cellular networks are already transmitting and receiving over 100 exabytes of data per month. This means that over one zettabyte of data will be carried on mobile networks this year. In fact, over the past few years, there has been a continuous increase in the amount of data consumed by cellular devices. Four years ago, in 2018, the average traffic on cellular networks was below 20 exabytes per month.
While the industry celebrates that cellular networks can handle that enormous data traffic, and there have not been any significant disruptions during the pandemic, the power requirements on both the network side and the connected devices are also growing significantly.
The arrival of 5G networks is helping reduce power consumption a little, as the new radio is more efficient per bit. However, most of the current 5G networks are non-standalone, requiring a 4G LTE network to operate, basically canceling any power savings. We will only enjoy the full advantages of the technology once 5G standalone and 5G Advanced networks are running. Meanwhile, data traffic will continue to rise, and more power will be required when the new networks are ready.
According to EY, “5G technology is estimated to add between 2.7 and 6.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year by 2030.”
DATA CENTERS ARE ALSO INCREASING POWER CONSUMPTION
A recent report from EY indicates that traffic in data centers is also experiencing a massive uptake. The pandemic has fueled the need for more information to be transmitted digitally, and hybrid work, with unified communications, is pushing much more data via the cloud.
According to the EY paper, “data centers are energy-intensive, using an estimated 200 terawatt-hours (TWh) each year, more than the national energy consumption of Iran. The power requirements for emerging technologies are high and growing. Bitcoin produces 36.9 megatons of CO2 annually, comparable with New Zealand.
Training artificial intelligence (AI) models to do natural language processing (NLP) can produce the carbon dioxide equivalent of five times the lifetime emissions of an average American car, or equivalent to 300 round-trip flights between San Francisco and New York.”
CONNECTED CARS ARE HEAVY USERS OF CELLULAR DATA
It is estimated that over 750 million consumer light vehicles are connected via telematics or in-vehicle apps, continuously using cellular networks to send and receive data.
As more cars come equipped with higher levels of ADAS, enabling some autonomous features, more data will need to be collected and exchanged with the cloud. Maps and other information will need to be updated continuously, and the speed and reliability of 5G networks will be crucial.
New vehicles feature fast computer systems that can process most data locally, reducing the amount of data transmission to the cloud. But, to keep systems accurate, especially mapping, a lot of information is exchanged between the car and cloud services.
CELLULAR SERVICE PROVIDERS AND OTHER TELECOMS ARE NOT THINKING ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY
The ICT sector accounts for 7% of global electricity use. Many many projections signal continued exponential increase in data traffic and potential for ICT to rise to 14% of global emissions by 2040.
Sustainability, however, is yet to be a core business principle for most telecommunications companies. “Currently, only 3% of TMT CEOs cite as a leading trend impacting their company, well below the energy and resources sector (70%) and consumer products organizations (20%).”
Things are starting to change. The current energy crisis, exacerbated by regional conflicts, has put the price of electricity and other forms of energy at its peak level in 100 years. Operational costs for all stakeholders in the telecom industry are rising. Therefore, the desire to be more sustainable and reduce power consumption is no longer an aspiration but a clear business requirement.
On the other hand, CSPs and Telecoms have a crucial role in the sustainability of different industries. Innovative communications technologies help quantify, monitor, and predict energy usage while driving exponentially greater efficiency. In the future, ICT solutions could reduce global emissions by up to 15%, according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Today’s mobile technologies enable carbon reduction equivalent to 4% of global emissions, which is ten times the mobile industry’s carbon footprint.
While digitalization, wireless technologies, and cloud computing help to reduce the overall power consumption and emissions of many industries, it will only matter if we continue to increase the production of non-essential consumer goods and services.
