NGMN Urges ICT Companies to Tackle Climate Change

ICT Companies should align investments with a 1.5°C trajectory in line with ITU L.1470

The Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance is set to align the mobile communication sector with its entire supply chain – from component manufacturers to service providers – to address sustainability challenges faced by the ICT sector. Its Green Future Networks project, launched in November 2020, is the first NGMN initiative to provide detailed guidance regarding the environmental impacts of the ICT sector’s network part.

NGMN urges all ICT companies to align investments with a 1.5°C trajectory in line with ITU L.1470. This includes roadmaps for the full ICT value chain i.e. for mobile and fixed networks, as well as for data centers, user devices and enterprise networks. In addition, NGMN will develop requirements and call for actions to support achieving the 1.5°C trajectory, thus helping the full ecosystem to better identify their options and priorities. All these levers will help to make the ICT sector more aligned with the principles of a circular economy. More than 20 NGMN companies including mobile network operators, vendors, service providers and research institutions already contribute with their efforts to a number of different and innovative topics such as critical raw materials usage, a method on circular economy scoring or the use of lean packaging.

“Orange has been pushing for network energy efficiency for years, and we are very proud of the outcome that 5G can deliver in achieving a more energy efficient design. We are very excited to be involved in the NGMN initiative. We are convinced that it will have a definite contribution to making future mobile networks more sustainable, reducing their environmental impact despite the expected growth in usage”, claims Emmanuel Lugagne Delpon, Senior Vice President at Orange Labs Networks.

Prof. Mischa Dohler, Chair Professor at King’s College London, adds: “King’s College London actively supports the UN SDGs – through research, industrial collaboration and societal outreach. We are excited to be part of such an important initiative by NGMN. We are certain that this initiative will impact the telco industry for many years to come.”

Interested industry players are invited to join NGMN in this important initiative.

About NGMN Alliance (www.ngmn.org)

The NGMN Alliance (Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance) is a forum founded by world-leading Mobile Network Operators and open to all partners in the mobile industry. Its goal is to ensure that next generation network infrastructure, service platforms and devices will meet the requirements of operators and, ultimately, will satisfy end user demand and expectations.

The vision of the NGMN Alliance is to provide impactful industry guidance to achieve innovative and affordable mobile telecommunication services for the end user with a particular focus on supporting 5G’s full implementation, Mastering the Route to Disaggregation, Sustainability and Green Networks, and 6G.

NGMN seeks to incorporate the views of all interested stakeholders in the telecommunications industry and is open to three categories of participants (NGMN Partners): Mobile Network Operators (Members), vendors, software companies and other industry players (Contributors), as well as research institutes (Advisors).