The Nigerian Communications commission, NCC, has said that the country will soon witness an increased deployment of telecom infrastructure in order to meet up with the requirement for the deployment of 5G services nationwide.
The Commission said with such development, it will have to source alternative energy for sustainability.
Disclosing this at the 2023 World Consumer Rights Day held on Wednesday in Abuja, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta said there was the need to improve on the energy capacity of the country as there will be a high demand for data.
While proffering solution to the energy question, the EVC reeled out different means of generating sustainable energy for the industry to strive. One of such was the utilization of green energy solution including the redesign of the Radio Access Networks (RAN) of Base Stations which were initially built to maximise connectivity, not energy efficiency.
According to the EVC, “Some other energy efficiency measures can also include the use of renewable energy sources (hydrogen, wind, solar etc.) to supply the energy needed.”
Part of the statement reads:
“With the recent licensing of the Fifth Generation (5G) spectrum, Nigeria will witness an increased deployment of telecom infrastructure to satisfy the wireless service coverage requirement for 5G services. This anticipated growth in the number of 5G coverage will trigger high demand for data services which will result in increased energy consumption for the network infrastructure especially the Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), Internet of Things (IoT), 5G Customer Premise Equipment (CPEs) and mobile devices for example.
“This requires the industry to look for green and sustainable power solutions required for the connectivity of IoT devices and network optimisation. All over the globe, telecom companies are among the biggest energy users, as a result of the stiff industry competition which causes them to try to satisfy their consumers by providing higher-speed networks. With the rising utility costs, it is critical for companies to reconsider the sustainability of their operations by lowering the operational impact on the environment.
“This is more so because it has been found that implementing energy efficiency measures could potentially reduce the operating costs of telcos by up to 20%. Some of these energy-efficiency measures include the redesign of the Radio Access Networks (RAN) of Base Stations which were initially built to maximise connectivity, not energy efficiency. More than 75% of the time, the radio base station resources remain unused because of the hardware components activated at all times to transmit system information and synchronisation and reference signals.
“Therefore, to avoid waste heat, some of 5G’s newest RAN is equipped with an energy-saving measure allowing for the automatic switching of components.
“Some other energy efficiency measures can also include the use of renewable energy sources (hydrogen, wind, solar etc.) to supply the energy needed,” the statement said.