Green is a subjective color

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

December 17, 2008

1 Min Read
VDSL's Power, Part II

12:25 PM -- In yesterday's post, I reminded readers that, while today's broadband access technologies are touted as green, they are also big fat power pigs compared to the oldest of the older technologies they are replacing (i.e., Ye Olde Phone Network).

We have to take the claim that FTTH is a greener technology for telcos in the proper context. It is greener for telcos because they install loads of active electronics on the subscriber's house, and thus offload the power burden of tomorrow's technology to today's unsuspecting consumer. That's the price we pay for progress.

Bottom line: FTTH is greener for telcos, not for you. But, depending on how much more often FTTH allows you to work from home, even that point could be debated.

Finally, there's also some debate as to whether VDSL2 does actually use less power than ADSL2. A presentation used by BroadLight Inc. at the most recent FTTH Conference noted that VDSL actually consumes more power, but the point of the comparison was to show that GPON was the best bet (for telcos) overall.

Broadlight's findings (and assumptions) are below:

Table 1: GPON's Green Tint

GPON vs.

Power Savings

Power Cost Savings

CO2 Savings

ADSL2

~11 MWh

$1.2M

~4.8M lbs CO2 or 250K gallons of gas

VDSL

~29 MWh

$2.9M

~13.6M lbs CO2 or 700K gallons of gas

Assumptions:
� $0.10 kWh ( kWh = kiloWatt hour, MWh = MegaWatt hour)
� http://www.pge.com/about_us/environment/calculator/index.html

Source: Broadlight, Inc.





— Phil Harvey, Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like