Smart Communications Inc., the wireless unit of network provider PLDT Inc., has rolled out a “green radio” network solution across all its wireless radio sites, marking a significant stride towards reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions while yielding cost savings.
Through the deployment of intelligent and automated functionalities such as shutdowns, sleep modes, and adaptive power management, Smart has optimized its network to align with traffic consumption patterns, minimizing energy expenditure. This solution, piloted nationwide in 2023, leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to enable remote adjustments in capacity and power usage based on load conditions, thereby enhancing resource consolidation and conservation.
“Our green radio innovation is proven to harness artificial intelligence to track the activity on our network so that we can reduce the power consumption of our cell sites whenever they are not being fully utilized,” said Radames Zalameda, head of Network Quality, PLDT and Smart.
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Zalameda noted that certain elements of a cell site are turned off when demand is low but are automatically switched on when demand comes back.
“Combined with Smart’s Self-Organizing Network (SON), this also enables us to adjust the capacity of the cell sites as needed to support data traffic,” he said.
Over the past year, Smart has slashed power consumption by approximately 10,900MWH, a feat equivalent to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from over 1,690 gasoline-powered vehicles or powering 920 homes for a year.
To bolster its sustainability efforts, PLDT recently secured a P1 billion Green Loan facility from HSBC Philippines to support the ongoing modernization and expansion of its fiber network. The group is also exploring the integration of renewables and green technologies to advance its decarbonization roadmap.