Is the sustainable telco hype finally over?

Walking past the larger booths of solution providers and network operators at MWC25 Barcelona, it will be evident several stand designers have been instructed to emphasise the themes of green, sustainable, circular and energy efficient.

Displays featuring solar panels, renewable materials and pictures of idealised, plant-filled cities will all be signs of the environmental sustainability hype.

Hype is temporary, it never lasts forever. Sometimes it is very short, potentially fuelling longer-burns and real value (think metaverse), while other times it transforms into something long-lasting and is incorporated into something permanent.

The hype around sustainability will also transform into something else, and some other hype will take its place.

At GSMA Intelligence we work with operators and the mobile ecosystem to understand the trends, technologies and market demands which matter, including the way in which sustainability demands are impacting operators.

That said, we don’t know exactly what the key themes will be a few years out.

Sustainability as a network and operations transformational priority, however, is here to stay and continues to impact almost every decision operators and vendors make.

GSMA Intelligence works with operators to understand the technology and strategy priorities guiding network transformation. So, how did sustainability fit into our 2024 findings?

Across the globe 85% of operators consider sustainability and energy efficiency to be “extremely important” or “very important” to their network strategy. While the numbers have varied from year to year, this focus has remained relatively consistent for several years – marking it as a key priority for operators and, therefore, vendors too.

Why will sustainability as an operator priority remain and become deeply integrated into operations? This expectation comes from four key realities:

Financial

Energy represents a significant operational expense for operators, typically the third highest and is the only variable cost anticipated to increase in the future. It generally accounts for 20% of total network-related operational expenditure, closely after site rental and labour costs.

Network operators which don’t invest in energy efficiency are risking their long-lasting competitiveness as energy efficiency is only going to become more important in the next decade, driven by the strategic importance of energy security and potentially increasing prices.

For comprehensive insight into energy efficiency, take a look at GSMA Intelligence’s most recent analysis and benchmarking report. This report is based on an extensive dataset from 95 network operators and covers over 1.8 billion global connections.

Reporting

Rapidly changing stakeholder expectations demand network operators measure and report on their environmental impact and act.

Reporting CO2 emissions has become crucial, with investors and business partners closely monitoring these metrics. Governments and NGOs are also encouraging companies to go green and often set related targets for operators and vendors.

Artificial Intelligence

The advent of AI brings opportunities and challenges from a sustainability perspective. AI has the potential to improve energy efficiency in the time, spatial and frequency domains, but also the huge risk of increasing energy consumption.

Energy efficiency and sustainability are data-intensive areas: operators and vendors need to process data and make decisions efficiently.

AI-driven solutions can make real time decisions, reducing the need for costly and non real time network engineering hours. Conversely AI, and especially generative AI, can significantly impact data traffic and put considerable pressure on network operators.

Revenue

Energy efficiency and sustainability efforts can be an opportunity to open new services and grow revenue.

By 2025, some subscribers will be willing to pay more or switch to another network operator due to the operator’s efforts in offering environmentally friendly products such as carbon-neutral packages. Younger generations in particular will find these messages resonating.

Energy management can also open new doors for enterprise customers.

As the electric grid grows in complexity, so does the demand for better management of the network, and all its inputs and outputs, and extra electricity storage to balance out rapidly changing supply and demand profiles.

Mobile network operators are well-positioned to start offering Virtual Power Plant services and digitally integrate various power sources and storage to optimise energy consumption and balance out non- standard periods.

Win-win

Hype is not always bad. Often it brings attention to important issues and technologies, even if their future is far from certain. And, when this hype supports the

environment while also making network operators more efficient, then it would be hard to frame it as “bad”.

Green telco hype can reduce the industry’s environmental impact, improve overall efficiency and open new revenue channels. A true win-win-win if done well.

Filtering out greenwashing and the incredible amount of noise when we walk past the green booths at MWC is essential, but this cannot distract from the fact that sustainability will stay and permanently become a key priority for network operators.