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September 21, 2009
Telus ranks as fifth greenest wireless carrier: report
MONTREAL – Canada's wireless carriers are lagging behind their major U.S. counterparts when it comes to being green, especially for having energy efficient mobile phone networks, says a new report card.
Global firm ABI Research ranked AT&T Wireless as the greenest mobile network operator among the two nations, followed by its American counterparts Sprint Nextel and Verizon in second and third, respectively.
In Canada, Vancouver-based Telus (TSX:T) came in at No. 5, followed immediately by Toronto-based Rogers Wireless (TSX:RCI.B) and Montreal-based Bell Mobility (TSX:BCE) in sixth and seventh spots.
ABI Research said Wednesday it looked at initiatives to lower energy consumption on wireless networks, efforts to have green network equipment, environmentally friendly mobile phones and phone recycling.
It said Telus led the pack in Canada because it has published data on its green efforts, energy consumption within its buildings, and measured its carbon efficiency.
But ABI said Telus hasn't talked enough publicly about how much energy its mobile network uses or plans to reduce it, and neither has Rogers or Bell.
"They're sort of lagging behind," analyst Aditya Kaul said of Canada's three biggest wireless carriers.
Kaul said measures to cut power consumption on mobile networks were a key part of his study.
"Most Canadian operators did not really have any programs that were targeted toward reducing this key metric that I measure," Kaul said from ABI's U.K. office in London.
"There is work going on, but it's still not at the scale at which it's required," he said, adding that Sprint and AT&T are the North American leaders on that front.
"About 80 per cent of their power consumption actually happens in the network itself," said Kaul, senior analyst for mobile networks.
He said Rogers has said it plans to reduce power consumption at its cell sites, where communications equipment is located, but hasn't said what it has done to date. Bell doesn't seem to have much on green network infrastructure, he added.
"Operators who speak about green, that doesn't really cut it with me," Kaul said.
While the Canadian carriers have taken other environmentally friendly initiatives, steps need to be taken to reduce network power consumption with the use of energy efficient equipment, he said.
AT&T has said how it has reduced electricity use on its network, but no other wireless carrier even if the United States has provided that kind of information, he said.
However, Sprint has set a goal of recycling almost 90 per cent of the handsets it sells by 2017, he said.
"I don't think any other operator in North America, or the world, has those sort of ambitions."
Kaul said there are just two green handsets, Samsung's Reclaim made from recycled plastic and Motorola's Renew, made from recycled water cooler jugs.
"A very small percentage of consumers actually want to have a green handset."
Sprint and AT&T are trying to get mobile phone makers to be more environmentally friendly, he said.
Both Bell and Telus said Wednesday that they have a number of environmentally friendly initiatives.
Bell said it has recovered 625,000 mobile phones and more than 90 metric tonnes of batteries and accessories, and has almost a 12 per cent reduction in green house gas emissions since 2003. It also offers electronic billing.
Bell also said it was the first telecommunications company in Canada to get international certification for controlling and improving its environmental performance.
Telus said it has it has disclosed its energy and carbon footprint since 2002, offers electronic billing and has environmentally friendly buildings. The company also said it recycled more than 86,000 phones in 2008, which was above its original goal.
"Telus has 12 local Telus green teams located across the country – while not wireless specific, this is an employee volunteer program that cuts across all lines of business and fosters sustainability in the workplace," the company said.
American wireless firm T-Mobile ranked fourth in the report card, while companies MetroPCS, Leap Wireless and U.S. Cellular rounded out the top 10.
© 2009 The Canadian Press
