Stakeholders can submit your suggestion on 'Approach towards sustainable telecommunications' to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) until March 14, as the regulator extended the deadline. "On request of some of the stakeholders, the last date for receipt of written comments has been extended up to March 14, 2017 and counter comments, if any, up to March 28, 2017," TRAI said .
"It has also been decided that no request for any further extension of time for submission of comments/counter comments shall be entertained," it added. Last month, TRAI has issued the consulatation paper on the same in which the regulator asked a feedback on calculating the carbon footprint by telecom companies.
The regulator said in its paper that India has the second largest and fastest growing mobile telephone market in the world. Power and energy consumption for telecom network operations is by far the most important significant contributor of carbon emissions in the telecom industry. Hence, it is important for the telecom operators to shift to energy efficient technologies and alternate sources of energy.
Indian telecom sector witnessed substantial growth in the number of subscribers during the year November 2016, the subscriber base was 11099.51 million were wireless subscriber base recorded an increase, while the overall teledensity increased increase in rural teledensity from 48.37 to 51.37 increased from 148.61 to 154.0.
Currently 4,50,000 telecom towers are operational, in which only 90,000 are diesel-free sites.
The regulator has asked on the renewable energy options available and how telecom service providers can increase dependence on these sources. There is also the question of setting renewable energy targets for service providers and the timeline for achieving these targets.
"With 3G becoming pervasive and the increasing roll out of 4G networks, the energy demand will further substantially increase the energy consumption patterns of the telecom sector," regulator said.