Power Consumption and How Carriers
Can Use Less

By Tim Young

Communications technology is going to save the planet. A commercial on my television told me so.

» read this article

Carriers Embrace the Smart Grid Revolution

By Jesse Cryderman

As a high school student, I was an active debater; not the type that stirred the pot around the lunch table, but a member of the debate team, a group whose membership meant better luck on college entrance exams and generally worse luck at prom. Armed with the principles of deductive logic, we set about facing down our equally equipped opponents from other schools on weeknights in semi-lit basements around the state. Okay, so it wasn't like Fight Club for nerds, but you get the picture.

» read this article

Does Green Make Cents?
The Business Case, or lack thereof, for Going Green

By Ed Finegold

Environmentally-friendly and sustainable business practices are controversial. Skeptics will wonder whether recycling office paper and shutting off the lights really makes a difference when colleagues are flying all over the world in kerosene burning, CO2-spewing airliners every day. For communications operators, like most major enterprises in an age of climate-change fear politics, green initiatives are promoted regularly in external communications. But they aren’t the first foot forward, in most cases, and it is difficult to find any evidence suggesting that green business practices improve customer loyalty and satisfaction in a broad or measurable way.

» read this article

What About the Trucks?
Workforce and Fleet Management

By Tim Young

This issue has focused on the use of various solutions and best practices to reduce energy consumption and therefore, promote both carbon reduction and cost reduction along the way. However, most of the conversation has been around how data centers and infrastructure elements can be greened, or how billing processes can be refined to sidestep physical mailings in favor of e-billing.

» read this article

OSS Apps? Android Apps that Improve Efficiency

By Jesse Cryderman

When I power up my Android phone, I have to wait over two minutes before I can make a call. After the two-minute boot time, I launch Advanced Task Killer (one of the most popular apps in the Android Market) in order to close all of the pre-installed software that loads upon startup. You see, I can't remove this software, nor can I modify its activity or permissions; I'm stuck closing it manually while time ticks and my battery life diminishes. In fact, if my battery is low, I'm better off leaving my phone on rather than turning it off until I need it, because the auto-loading bundled apps are power drainers, and send and receive packets of data as they load. Sadly, my experience is not unusual--it's the norm.

» read this article

In e-Billing, Which Comes First? Lean or Green?

By Ed Finegold

E-billing adoption and standardization across Europe is one of the European Commission’s key goals in its Europe 2020 initiative. Among the benefits stated in its report entitled “Reaping the benefits of electronic invoicing for Europe” released on December 2, 2010 was an estimate, based on a study from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, that CO2 emissions could be reduced by 1 million tons per year as a result of ebilling’s reduced paper consumption and transportation. Overall, however, the Commission’s primary motivations for a shift to ebilling were economic in nature, relating to more efficient and accurate billing and collections. So, e-billing may be environmentally friendly, but if it wasn’t also economically compelling, would anyone care?

» read this article

Helping Data Centers Run Lean

By Phil Britt

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that utility costs for U.S. computer servers rose to $7.4 billion in 2010, up from $4.5 billion only five years earlier.

» read this article

NewsWatch

By Jesse Cryderman

Battle Rages Between Cablecos, Telcos

» read this article

Letter from the Editor
July 2011

By Tim Young

“Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.” -Thomas Edison

» read this article

Power Consumption and How Carriers Can Use Less