Cell tower electrical consumption is related to content usage by mobile subscribers, it stands to reason. But just as data center operators seek ways to reduce power consumption, will mobile operators soon have to do the same?
According to Sandvine, watching video in 720p on phones uses 1/20th of the energy resources of a 4K video. Assume the average cell site today uses about 5kW of power. Further assume power consumption of about 0.4 kW per square kilometer.
Assume a typical mobile operator uses about half that amount of power in any 24-hour period, allowing for power savings at night.
That would come to about 462000 MWh of usage, according to Sandvine. Using 2021 electricity pricing ($0.19/kWh), that would cost an operator about $86 million, or about four percent of revenues, Sandvine estimates.
Part of the solution is demand management, says Sandvine. In other industries, such as the electrical power industry, there often are differential charges for usage at peak hours, for example.
Mobile operators used to do this themselves, as when they offered discounting long distance calling after 7 p.m. and before the morning business hours, as well as discounting calling on weekends. In all those periods, network demand was quite a bit lower.
It is not clear how well similar demand shaping might work in the internet access business, but it might eventually be necessary.
Data consumption presents similar issues. But it is a complicated matter. Internet service providers have customers. Some of those customers are heavier users. Only sometimes do service plans correlate usage and cost very closely.
And that is but part of the issue. Customer data demand is driven, in part, by the applications they wish to use. And much of that demand comes from a relative handful of content and application providers who are not, strictly speaking, “customers.”
To be sure, differential pricing policies, as well as measures to shift demand, have been used by telcos in the past. Business customers paid higher rates. International long distance drove profit margins for firms whose consumer customers sometimes were negative margin, zero margin or low margin profit contributors.
But all those policies and prices were levied on customers. What is new is the effort by some regulators to shift burdens from customers to content and app providers whose products customers want to use.
It is akin to taxing suppliers of washing machines, air conditioning and refrigerators because they represent a disproportionate share of network load at peak summer hours, instead of charging the actual customers who consume electricity.
It is fair to argue whether that makes good sense. Perhaps less disruptive or questionable policies, such as a return to forms of demand management by ISPs themselves, should be tried first. Pricing policies can incentivize economical use of network resources, instead of disincentivizing usage.
Telcos have done this before. Perhaps they should try it again. And perhaps regulators should allow them to do so, instead of instituting radically-different policies that might be questionable in terms of fairness, equity or logic.
Perhaps ISPs should simply try what they have done before: incentivize customers to use network resources rationally. Right now, we do not see that.
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