While the summer heat is welcome, the extremes of heat from climate change certainly isn’t. Many industries including the telecoms sector are taking measures to reduce energy usage and so minimise CO2 emissions. Their contribution to the battle against climate change is not purely altruistic as reducing energy consumption has a financial benefit. Energy costs represent a significant proportion of a telecom company’s operating expenditure.

For a mobile operator, around 70% of energy usage is consumed by the thousands of cell sites in their radio access network. The expected increase in mobile data traffic and the expansion of the 5G infrastructure makes the need to conserve energy even more important.

Mobile operators are rising to this challenge by using a variety of methods to conserve energy. These include the use of AI with machine learning to identify and then predict periods of low traffic at each individual cell site. Using this information, the system then switches off certain radio carriers when the capacity is not needed.
During overnight periods of very low activity, sites can be put into ‘deep sleep’. Carriers are automatically ‘woken up’ again when the network gets busier. As this can take place in a matter of seconds, the use of AI should not lead to any service disruption.

Other energy saving techniques now employed by mobile network operators include switching off 3G transmissions, the use of passive air cooling at sites, and the use of electric vehicles.

PTT offers several online courses covering mobile technologies and services ranging from the Introduction to mobile systems to the Advanced mobile systems course.

Nothing lasts forever, not even submarine cables. Take the case of TAT-14, the transatlantic cable system that interconnected the USA, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. TAT-14 had a ring topology with two transatlantic cables interconnected by cable segments at each end with a total length of 15,428 kilometres.

TAT-14 was commissioned in 2001 and upgraded in 2011 to satisfy the demand for more capacity. But, despite the upgrade, the decision was made to retire TAT-14 with its last traffic carried in 2020.

So, what was the reason for its demise? The answer, as always, is economics. Older systems cost more to maintain while the latest technologies allow far higher capacity and greater reliability. The Havfrue cable system, which replaced TAT-14 in 2020, has ten times the capacity of the older system and links the USA with Ireland, Denmark and Norway.

Recently it was announced that a new IOEMA cable system will complement Havfrue by linking UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway with connections to the transatlantic links of Havfrue.

Much of TAT-14’s cables has been recovered from the seabed by Subsea Environmental Services which specialises in the recovery and recycling of retired submarine cables. So, the cycle of life continues – out with the old, in with the new.

The PTT online course “Telecommunications networks” introduces the operation and capabilities of the terrestrial, submarine, and satellite links that provide modern communications services.

The technologies that underpin the telecommunications services we all depend on have gone through significant changes in the last few years. The speed of change makes it a challenge for those directly responsible for service provision to stay abreast with new technologies and techniques.
But what of their colleagues who are not directly involved in technology issues? Do they need to keep up to date? For example, do customer service agents and retail sales representatives need to how the services they support or sell are delivered?
Many of us have experienced the frustration of dealing with a service agent who is making every effort to deal with the reported problem but is hampered by a lack of basic knowledge of how the service is provided. And sales representatives need to know the limitations of the service they are selling as well as the benefits.
Arming non-technical personnel with a basic understanding of the underpinning technologies gives them greater confidence in their efforts to address the concerns and requirements of their customers. And that of course leads to greater customer satisfaction.
PTT’s online course “Introduction to telecoms services” is designed for non-technical personnel working in the telecommunications sector. This online course keeps technical detail to the absolute minimum necessary to gain an appreciation of modern telecoms services.
The course, which has a proven track record in training customer support representatives, has recently been updated to include the latest advances in service provision.