Just how much power is too much? Researchers at Bell Labs are examining whether the environmental costs for today’s telecom technology are just too high — and how much they can be reduced while retaining current service levels. Datamation has the story.
Modern telecommunications networks globally are responsible for the consumption of some 300 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, according to Alcatel-Lucent. Reducing the carbon footprint of telecom networks is the goal of Alcatel-Lucent’s (NYSE:ALU) new Green Touch effort which includes a consortium of academic, industry and government partners.
The Green Touch effort is being led by Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs research division and has been given the goal of reducing the power used in telecom networking gear by a factor of a thousand.
“The sheer fact that we get so many people on board [the network] every single year, means that the total CO2 emissions as an absolute term, is going up,” Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel-Lucent’s CEO, said during a morning press conference. “If we don’t do something radical it will go up even further.”