Telcos asked to ensure that towers are run on hybrid power

New Delhi: All telecom companies have been mandated to ensure that that at least 50% of all rural towers and 20% of the urban towers are powered by hybrid power by 2015. Further 75% of rural towers and 33% of urban towers are to be powered by hybrid power by 2020.

These directions have been issued after the government has accepted sector regulator Trai's recommendations on 'green telephony'.

The new rules also mandate that all telecom products, equipments and services in the telecom network should be certified "Green Passport [GP]" by the year 2015. The telecoms department's technical arm - Telecommunication Engineering Centre - will certify telecom products, equipments and services on the basis of Energy Consumption Rating ratings, the regulator said.

Besides, all service providers should declare to the regulator the carbon footprint of their network operations. This declaration should be done twice in a year.

Service providers should adopt a voluntary code of practice encompassing energy efficient network planning, infra-sharing, deployment of energy efficient technologies and adoption of renewable energy technology (RET) to reduce carbon footprints, the regulator said in a statement.

It has also asked service providers to evolve a 'Carbon Credit Policy' in line with carbon credit norms with the ultimate objective of achieving a maximum of 50% over the carbon footprint levels of the Base Year (2011) in rural areas and 66% in urban areas by the year 2020.

Operatores should aim at Carbon emission reduction targets for the mobile network at 5% by the year 2012-2013, 8% by the year 2014-2015, 12% by the year 2016-2017 and 17% by the year 2018-2019, the new norms on green telephony add.