Telecom Industry splits over pollution issues

New Delhi : Controversy mired the 2nd International Conference titled ?Green Telecom India 2010? on Friday, over the allegedly high level of radiation and pollution from telecom towers and equipment including handsets.

Rajiv Mehrotra, President of Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA), alleged ?double standards? in the case of foreign manufacturers.

Highlighting the lack of regulations on radiation and other pollutants from telecom towers and equipment, Rajiv Mehrotra asked: ?why it was the same foreign manufacturers who were implementing extremely low levels of radiation for their equipment in their countries, were not using these technologies in the items they were selling in this country.?

Out of global pollution of 3.8 million tonnes, as much as 2.8 million tonnes was generated from India even though India had less number of cell phone subscribers.

The TEMA chairman?s contention was, however, countered later by Rajan Mathew, director-general of Cellular Operators Association of India.

?One telecom tower company uses two billion liters of diesel, ? Mehrotra, who is also founder chairman and CEO of VNL pointed out.

?In the West they do not radiate at such high power in the tower,? he added.

He also raised the danger from huge use of diesel.

?One base station leaves 60 tons of carbon dioxide a year. The numbers already installed spew 6 million tons of CO2 every year. More cells, more noise and more radiation,? he remarked recalling that cell phones and towers would reach out to 6 lakh villages soon.

?There is no law to regulate these,” he regretted and called for immediate government action to enforce international standards here.

However, Director-General of Cellular Operators Association of India, Rajan Mathew revealed that in a joint study of EMF of telecom equipment in 100 locations conducted by telecom operators, IIT Madras and Madurai Engineering College found that in each site the level was a thousand part of what international standards mandated.

Mathew contended by saying that the total pollution level from the entire ICT industry was only two per cent of the pollution in this country, as telecom industry forms less than half a per cent of the ICT total, the pollution from it alone could not be alarming.

?Mobility being the major driver of communication in the country with wire lines very much limited, the cell phones were seen as having a disproportionate impact on pollution,? Mathew added.

He also mentioned that the limited availability of spectrum in India, forced the Indian operators to install more cell sites to reach out to larger populations with lower allocation of spectrum.

?The operators have no choice but to make the best use of the lower spectrum resources,? he pointed out.

Speaking on moving from, passive infrastructure sharing to active infrastructure sharing and on pollution reduction, he said: ?We are aware of our responsibility.?

He mentioned that to reduce pollution, operators were using base stations that do not require air-conditioning and diesel gensets were being substituted with hybrid ones.

However, several telecom executives emphasised the need for greater availability of grid power in rural areas to obviate the need for setting up diesel gensets.

?Government must give power to towers and base stations to reduce use of diesel,? said Gopal Das, CMD, BSNL(Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited).

Government support was also needed to offset the high cost of using alternative sources of energy like solar panels.

Gopal Das also revealed that BSNL was experimenting with pilot projects in the use of solar panels in Bihar, Maharashtra and other places and wind power in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan among other pilot projects.

USO Fund administrator Ajay Bhattacharya wanted the industry to come out with a fresh set of guidelines to reduce costs of energy use in every sector.

The Fund was now assisting the industry in extending its reach to rural areas.

?Going green must bring economies in operation? he stressed.

Besides, H. L. Gupta. Head, operations in networks, Bharti Airtel, mentioned that the number of towers would go up from 3.4 lakhs now, to 4.6 lakhs by 2015, base stations from 5.5 lakhs to 10.7 lakhs, the minutes of usage was rising even as average revenue per use was plunging.

Use of green technology in ?each and every area of operations? was inevitable and was a great opportunity, he added.

Speaking about pollution, he suggested the use of a mix of solar, wind and biomass for substituting diesel.

Samar Mittal, Head of Global Services Sales India Region, Nokia Siemens Networks, estimated that the telecom industry?s energy need would be 60,000 MW by 2050.

Besides, he quoted data to show how energy efficiency in ?mature markets? was almost three times that in emerging markets like India.

?Nokia Siemens Networks is constantly working on minimising its carbon footprint as well as helping infrastructure companies communication service providers in utilizing energy most efficiently,? added Mittal.

Nokia-Siemens Networks were experimenting with new renewable energy technologies and that had saved 1.7 GHz of energy in 25 countries.

?We are working out cost reduction techniques in use of renewable sources,? said Bibek Bandyopadhyay, adviser, Ministry of new and renewable energy and urged for the greater use of non-conventional energy sources in telecom energy scene.

He had also mentioned the details of the Government support for these technologies.

The ?Green Telecom India 2010? is the only event on Green Telecom held in India.