Australia’s first energy efficiency training program specifically designed for employees within the mobile network industry to help reduce emissions, and offset the rising costs of electricity and risk to energy supply, was launched in Sydney today.

The online energy efficiency training program and best practice guide is being led by the Mobile Carriers Forum (MCF), a division of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), in partnership with national climate change consultancy Energetics.

Significant funding to develop and implement the training program has been granted by the NSW Department of Environmental Climate Change and Water (DECCW) through its Energy Efficiency Training Program. The project is supported by member network carriers Optus, Telstra and Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA).

The content and decision frameworks of the energy training modules will be directed at key roles including project managers, design engineers and life cycle managers to increase their awareness and knowledge around energy use.

The training program will support a cultural and systemic shift, focused on changing work practices and behaviour for technical staff in the area of Radio Access Networks, which can contribute up to 93 percent of some mobile carriers’ total energy consumption.

Around 250 employees from mobile carriers Optus, Telstra and VHA based in NSW, where more than 30 percent of Australia’s 17,000 mobile telecommunications network facilities are located, will be among the first to benefit from the training resource.

MCF Project Manager Matt Evans said the training program will be piloted in NSW later this year and will become a vital resource for all mobile network carriers across Australia if energy efficiency measures are to be incorporated into universal management systems.

“We are focused on developing an industry approach to address the significant amount of total network operator energy use for mobile network carriers, contributing to a sustainable and environmentally responsible industry” he said.

“Following the pilot, the program will be delivered to mobile network deployment teams across Australia, and not restricted to those in NSW, through an online training tool.”

Optus, Telstra and VHA will contribute to the content of the online training modules and the best practice guide that will be developed and implemented based on business drivers related to environmental issues and operational costs.

“While increasing employees’ awareness of energy efficiency, the training program will also include practical opportunities during the design stage on RAN components and provide decision frameworks around these,” Mr Evans said.

“The best practice guide will be developed for energy efficiency in design, procurement and maintenance activities within RAN such as free cooling capabilities in Base Transceiver Stations, efficiency improvements of air-conditioning systems, control, hardware and planning options, and alternative energy sources.”

The collaborative effort of Optus, Telstra and Vodafone, via the MCF, has already been established through the funding submission to DECCW.

“Our members have shown great commitment to working together to create the first training based initiative for the mobile telecommunications industry for energy efficient network design,” Mr Evans said.

“We thank the NSW Department of Environmental Climate Change and Water for showing its support of this project by way of funding through its Energy Efficiency Training Program grant.”

AMTA/MCF is committed to promoting an environmentally responsible and sustainable mobile telecommunications industry.

It does this through promoting improvements in energy efficiency, which this initiative addresses, and also by reducing waste and promoting recycling. MobileMuster is the industry’s official recycling program. It is the only industry-wide program for electronic waste offering free recycling for all mobile brands in Australia. More than 90% of materials in mobiles, batteries and accessories can be recovered. Recycling mobile phone materials avoids between 60 and 90 per cent of greenhouse gases that would normally be emitted when making these items from new materials.