Telcos put green strategies on display

Light Reading's Green Telecom 2008 one-day conference was held in Dallas this week, and the event gave telcos like AT&T a chance to promote their environmental friendliness, which must be rooted somehow in creating cost savings for such companies, of course. An AT&T executive delivering the keynote speech said the company won't wait around for new standards. He also discussed the telco's 1 megawatt solar power system at a company office in California, a system that will reduce power consumption by 4,300 kilowatt-hours per day.

Of course, such significant proclamations also open telcos up to more "suggestions" from industry observers. "They should go unplug all the stuff that they're not using," said industry analyst Kermit Ross, principal of Millennium Marketing, in Light Reading's coverage of the event. Ross was alluding to the line cards in central offices that are powered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even while access lines aren't used.

For more:
- Light Reading has the story [1]
- Telephony's green telecom series recently covered [2] Verizon

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The TIA wants the telecom industry to think green thoughts [3]
Power vendor Emerson said green plans need to be comprehensive [4]