The Department of Telecommunications has accepted the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s (TRAI) recommendations on adopting green technology in the telecom space. These directions are aimed at reducing the diesel consumption of telecom towers.
The regulator had recommended that all telecom companies be mandated to ensure that at least 50 per cent of all rural towers and 20 per cent of urban towers are powered by hybrid power by 2015.
In the next stage, the regulator has said that mobile phone companies should scale up their operations, so that 75 per cent of rural towers and 33 per cent of urban towers are powered by hybrid power by 2020.
The new rules also mandate that all telecom products, equipments and services in the telecom network should be given the Green Passport certification by the 2015.
The Telecommunication Engineering Centre will certify telecom products, equipments and services on the basis of Energy Consumption Rating ratings, the regulator said. Besides, all service providers should declare to the regulator the carbon footprint of their network operations. This should be done twice a year.
