Telcos Look to AI to Shrink Environmental Footprint

As the world marks the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, global telcos say they see artificial intelligence (AI) as key to cutting energy demand from rising internet traffic.

This is according to research compiled by Nokia and GSMA Intelligence, the research arm of the GSM Association.

GSMA Intelligence surveyed 103 communication service providers (CSPs), which is about a quarter of CSPs globally, on a variety of energy-efficiency issues.

The research reveals that 83% of CSPs surveyed see energy-efficiency as a major network transformation driver that will grow in importance as 5G is operationalised by the industry. On the other hand, 67% expect their energy costs to rise over the next three years based on current trends.

Most of the surveyed CSPs indicated energy-efficiency is either “very important” or “extremely important” in their network transformation strategy to counter rising energy consumption and emissions, says the report.

In addition to renewables, CSPs see AI energy management software as central to their strategies to shrink their environmental footprint, adds the report, noting this is due to those solutions’ ability to be used effectively across an entire network, with little to no human intervention.

Volker Held, head of marketing for managed services, cloud and network services at Nokia, says: “Reducing its carbon footprint is an important challenge for the telecommunications industry, given rising internet traffic trends and its implications for energy consumption.

“AI solutions hold the promise of realising quick and substantial energy-efficiency gains and ensure we fully live up to our environmental and social responsibilities.”

Tim Hatt, head of research and consulting at GSMA Intelligence, adds: “AI has clear and tangible benefits to improving the energy-efficiency of telecom networks and is a big part of the solution in driving sustainable 5G networks. It’s important to deploy AI early in order to train the algorithms and continually optimise network ops and costs over the long run.”

The report notes global internet traffic has risen exponentially in recent years, as a result of increased television and movie streaming, video-conferencing from remote working, and online gaming.

Despite this, many CSP respondents acknowledged they are still in the early planning and testing stages of getting their AI efforts off the ground with respect to energy-efficiency.

Nearly 50% of CSP respondents say they expect to achieve energy savings of 10% to 20% over the next two years, as AI energy solutions are rolled out and optimised.

The report states: “Using zero-touch automation, AI programmes can improve energy savings by closely aligning equipment usage patterns with real-time network demands, and identifying performance anomalies in underperforming network equipment that saps energy resources and requires replacement.

“Beyond curtailing energy demand, AI-powered energy solutions are expected to drive other important outcomes, such as reducing the number of on-site visits personnel have to make to troubleshoot network issues.”