Broadband Network Energy Efficiency Summit Paves The Way For Aligned Industry Advancement

22 September 2009, Paris – Building on current network energy efficiency efforts, expanding the promotion of broadband’s dematerialization benefits, identifying standards gaps and new opportunities for future collaboration, were the key drivers behind the Broadband Forum-organized Broadband Network Energy Efficiency Summit held in conjunction with the Broadband World Forum-Europe exhibition and conference in Paris.

Leading standards bodies and industry fora including ATIS, ETSI, HGI, GeSI EE-IOCG, the ITU-T and the Broadband Forum met in a private summit to bring together some of the world’s foremost experts to address green telecom issues. The Summit included interactive discussions regarding recent achievements, current work in progress, areas of potential overlap and new opportunities for liaison and joint activity. The discussion highlighted areas of collaboration and began to spell out the actions required to move the industry forward.

Malcolm Johnson, Director of Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) at the ITU-T, said: “The ICT industry is already very responsible and proactive in terms of its own carbon footprint and using ICTs to combat climate change in all sectors, such as empowering the potential impact of travel reductions on the carbon footprint, and it’s very important for the industry to be passing on the message of these dematerialization benefits.  It was hugely positive for all the organizations involved to come together for the Broadband Network Energy Efficiency Summit, building on the work already underway and discussing ways to continue the momentum.”

The meeting agreed to pursue a high level agreement on specific areas of activity and collaboration. In the first place this will include an analysis of current work to ensure we reduce overlap and move to address any gaps identified.

“Today’s Summit – thanks to the initiative of the Broadband Forum – has been a chance to bring together senior experts from across the industry and what I am encouraged by is that these are people who want to act – who actually want to do something rather than just talk. We must establish cooperation for the good of the industry and the world and I hope we will look back at today’s event as a turning point in turning words into action and delivery,” said Flavio Cucchietti, Senior Project Manager at Telecom Italia, representing GeSI EE-IOCG.

“Energy efficiency is an important part of our work and we very much welcomed the opportunity to take part in the energy efficiency Summit. Service providers across the world have an opportunity – a responsibility even – to offer smart energy usage of all types, from broadband to all aspects of home automation, and a gathering like this can only help us to work together to find solutions to help them achieve their goals,” Duncan Bees, Chief Technology and Business Officer of Home Gateway Initiative.

“ETSI has a proud record in standards work and development and we were delighted to be taking part in today’s Broadband Forum-inspired Summit. We started to work in Energy efficiency and on ecological aspect some years ago publishing some documents on this. We all see the need to work together in cooperation, from our side we are very open to input from other bodies and I am very confident that this gathering will help bring the industry together to develop this vital work in a much more coordinated manner,” said Paolo Gemma, Secretary of ETSI Technical Committee Environmental Engineering.

“At the Broadband Forum, we are already working on energy efficiency but we did not wish to do so in isolation – possibly duplicating the efforts of others and equally possibly leaving gaps that need attention. Today’s Summit has brought together a group of senior, committed people from the global standards arena and their cooperation will be critical as we work together to find a global solution to a global problem,” said Kevin Foster, Head of Access Innovation at BT and Chairman of the Broadband Forum Oversight Committee.

The event coincided with the launch and publication of the Broadband Forum’s new white paper "Energy Efficiency and Dematerialization: The Role of the Broadband Forum". The new white paper outlines Broadband Forum activities and working texts in the area of energy efficiency and dematerialization for vendors and service providers in the telecommunications sector. http://www.broadband-forum.org/marketing/download/mktgdocs/EnergyEfficiencyWhitePaper%20(MR204).pdf.

The Summit came at a time when the industry is devoting considerable effort to energy efficiency. There are extensive current efforts already in play in each of the attending organizations. Other current industry initiatives include:

“ATIS is a leader in the ICT industry’s movement towards improved sustainability,” said Mahmoud Elkenaney, Sr. Director, Physical Design and Environmental Engineering, Huawei Technologies, USA and NIPP Telecommunications Energy Efficiency Subcommittee Vice Chair. “Its recent Telecommunications Energy Efficiency Ratio standards – for use by Service Providers in assessing telecom equipment’s true energy consumption – enable increased energy efficiencies and cost containments.  We were pleased to work with the international community in pursuit of these environmentally-friendly business tools. We are committed to collaboration with global SDOs' initiatives to develop universally applied energy efficiency objectives.”

Ahmed Zeddam, Chairman of ITU-T SG5 welcomed this initiative and said, “Network energy efficiency is an important part of the work of SG5, which with its new name and mandate to ‘environment and climate change’, has started work on turning the deliverables of the Focus Group on ICTs and Climate Change into ITU-T Recommendations.

Regarding the need of collaboration, Ahmed Zeddam indicated that a Joint Coordination Activity on ICTs and Climate Change (JCA-ICT&CC) has been established in order to coordinate with recognized SDOs and forums. The first meeting of this JCA is scheduled for Wednesday October, 14 during the SG5 meeting in Geneva.

The Broadband Network Energy Efficiency Summit will be followed by a release of a Broadband energy efficiency standards landscape paper, which will highlight the specific work being done in each organization. Plans are underway for the second meeting of this illustrious group.

For further information about the industry's energy efficiency work, visit:

www.atis.org ATIS
www.broadband-forum.org Broadband Forum
www.etsi.org ETSI
www.gesi.org GeSI EE-IOCG
www.homegatewayinitiative.org HGI
www.itu.int/ITU-T/studygroups/com05/index.html ITU-T Study Group 5