Bharti Airtel’s focus on Green network initiatives transforms 40,000 telecom towers across India

Under its network transformation program “Project Leap”, Airtel plans to reduce its carbon footprint by 70 percent and further its commitment to environment-friendly practices with a host of initiatives.

Over 40,000 Airtel telecom towers are now �Green” and operate on battery- hybrid, lithium-ion and solar-hybrid technologies.

Airtel’s new telecom tower design and architecture functions without diesel generators.

Airtel plans aggressive use of renewable energy to increase solar rooftop power from 770KWp to 1MWp; aims to increase the use of renewable energy wheeling on Core Sites to enhance the Green energy consumption.

Bharti Airtel Limited (“Airtel”), India’s no. 1 operator and the third largest mobile services provider globally with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced the migration of 40,000 of its telecom towers across India to Green technology. In continuation with the company’s long term commitment towards Green network initiatives – Airtel’s network transformation program “Project Leap” is now focusing heavily on a series of fresh initiatives towards a greener environment and building sustainable network for the future. Under “Project Leap”, Airtel will establish a world-class and future-ready network, while committing to bring down its carbon footprint emission by 70% by 2018.

Commenting on the company’s Green network initiatives, Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) said, “As a responsible corporate we are concerned about the environment and have undertaken a host of initiatives to promote the use of greener technology. We are committed to bringing down the carbon emission by 70% and are taking all measures including bringing in state-of-art technology and partnering with the best globally. We have maintained strict adherence to Indian emission norms along with our company safeguard policy – thereby ensuring that emissions from mobile tower are safer than those from the light bulbs we use at homes. This is an important step towards our commitment to build a future ready and sustainable network.”

Additionally, Airtel has adopted a range of innovative methods like reducing power consumption by switching off unused capacity of its telecom towers during lean periods. It is also reducing power consumption and air wave emissions by optimizing signal transmission between the network and the device.

“We plan to adopt solar and new battery technologies in a big way and double our Green telecom towers by 2020. With a strategic focus on creating a green network, we remain committed to learning from the telecom industry’s best practices from across the globe. We are confident that our Green measures will work towards speeding up the development of a clean, safe and future ready network that will deliver a world-class service experience for our customers – now, and for years to come”, added Vittal.

The company has already installed roof top solar power capacity base of 770 KWp and plans to increase this capacity to 1 MWp in coming months and enhancing renewable energy wheeling by solar/wind/hydro on core sites – thereby consuming > 65 GWH/Annum of green energy. It is also investing heavily into state-of-the-art radio technology that will help optimize both power and space. Of the total network installed base, 60% has been deployed on a zero footprint architecture with no air conditioning thereby reducing dependency on diesel. More than 40,000 towers of these Green Airtel telecom towers are designed to operate largely on battery-hybrid, lithium-ion and solar hybrid solutions with very little diesel consumption. Apart from these measures Airtel maintains strict adherence to Indian Emission Norms along with its own safeguards that ensures emissions from its towers are safe.