Idea Cellular, a part of the Aditya Birla group, has
strengthened their go green initiatives by reducing conventional energy
consumption by about 25 percent.

 

More than 40 percent of Idea Cellular’s base stations are
OD BTS (preferred BTS of the company) as compared to the indoor BTS.

 

Idea Cellular is now giving special focus on redeploying
ID BTS to OD BTS in many sites. As a result it will further reduce energy
consumption at these sites by 25 percent.

 

The company has also utilized the concept of sharing
telecom infrastructure
to reduce the collective carbon foot print of the telecom sector in India.

 

Idea cellular has been strengthening green initiatives by
many other ways. It has explored a solar hybrid solution for running BTS in
parts of rural Bihar. It will reduce the fuel consumption of power generator
from running for 15-16 hours to less than 5 hours a day.

 

To encourage the development of environmentally
sustainable mobile networks, Idea Cellular led Indian telecom industry’s first
collaborative, cross-industry partnership, which was supported by the GSMA. It
targeted development of bio-fuels as a source of power for wireless networks in
rural India, located beyond the reach of the national electricity grid. It was
conducted Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

 

Moreover, Idea Cellular
is also a part of Fuel Cell project by Aditya Birla group itself. The project
is in its trial stage. It aims at exploring the usage of hydrogen as an
alternate energy source to power mobile base stations which can reduce the
usage of a regular power generator to zero, if successful.

 

Idea Cellular keeps taking initiatives in conserving
energy, recycling, or finding innovative ways of tackling environmental and social challenges. To go ahead
with go green initiative Idea covered Mumbai bus shelters green covers, with
potted plants, and tendril climbers last year.

 

Also, Idea partnered with two coffee chains-Barista and
Café Coffee Day regarding and spreaded awareness of paper saving through unique
mobile application that will allow people to download the menu card and bill on
their mobile phones.

 

During the financial year 2010-11, the company has
incurred a Capex of Rs 99,107 million (including Rs 57,686 million and Rs 4,097
million payout for 3G spectrum fee and interest capitalized thereon).

 

By Rashi Varshney
[email protected]