Mobile World Congress started off slightly smaller, but yet it buzzled with activities as ever before. Many new customer premises equipment, network hardware and software tools, software for mobile apps that are user generated, user driven or addictive for users to keep driving up usage and airtime, were all thriving at MWC. What stood out this year was the focus on Green ICT but given the sudden interest in this issue, it was hard sometimes to separate the hype from the real good stories.
I would see a booth saying “Green” but when I headed over I would realize that Green was used as a term to describe antenna or base stations which were 96% more efficient than other regular systems. Some people wanted to show how smaller footprint for component parts made them “green”. Whilst these have some green merits, given the enormity of the Financial Crisis and the Global Climate Change issue, we really need breakthrough innovation, which goes beyond incremental changes.
I was indeed rewarded by coming across the CEO of VNL finally. I had been following VNL as a company from India since September last year. I had actually mentioned them in my opening remarks at ITU Asia Telecom 2008 in Bangkok. I was delighted to meet the CEO, Anil Raj and listen to his interview with TELECOMTV in Barcelona. His full interview is available on www.telecomtv.com. Some quick highlights of his talk. VNL is a breakthrough solution for telecom service providers. They completely reengineered GSM base stations, which normally require 3,000 to 5,000W of power, to create base stations that now only require 50W to 150W of power (hence can now run solely on sun power). In other words, through innovative engineering, you now have base stations that can run solely on solar power thereby truly being “green”. These Green base stations (with their zero to nominal OPEX costs) brings down cost of ownership for the service providers so they can offer cheaper services to rural customers and still make a comfortable or profitable ARPU (Average revenue per user). This is truly “Green” technology that helps us feel good and allows us to do good business- now you are talking meaningful “Green” that makes sense.
The impact of this goes beyond the service provider. The whole subcontinent of India currently uses 2 billion litres of diesel to primary power and backup generators for base stations all over India. This Green technology helps eradicate the need for so much polluting use and cost of diesel. It also gives us hope that we can meet the Digital Divide needs of the word and do it in a Green way at the same time.
Another highlight of the day for me was that later that evening, Green Planet@TELECOMTV was launched. So many other companies were interviewed about their views on Green Telecom and they shared stories of technologies on camera, that they felt truly makes a difference. Green Planet@TELECOMTV intends to be a documentary with a difference (as a resource guide, helping to separate hype from reality and show case best practices, innovative business models and technologies that can truly help make a difference). The documentary is sponsored by Juniper Networks and Ericsscon. There will be 12 series launched on the web and complied into a full documentary that will be launched at various events over the coming year. I am truly thrilled to be part of this endeavor.