Nokia Siemens has announced an energy-efficient mobile network equipment package.
The set includes software that can reduce the energy used by base stations by setting some components to enter a power-saving mode at night, when network traffic decreases.
Another feature changes the minimum temperature requirement for a base station. While base stations are typically stored indoors where the air is cooled to around 25 degrees Celsius, Nokia Siemens found that increasing the temperature to closer to 40 degrees can reduce energy consumption at the site by as much as 30%.
Nokia Siemens' energy-efficient package also includes network-planning tools that can allow operators to use fewer base stations, which would also save on energy costs.
The company plans to reduce the energy consumption of its base stations from 800 watts for GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications) today to 650W and from 500W for WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) to 300W by 2010.
The base-station energy savings initiative is the first of others to come from the company, which says it is committed to improving the environmental impact of telecommunications infrastructure.