Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ... - ITU

Suggested action: The NCA or other appropriate agency in Ghana should investigate how much energy
could be saved by sharing of infrastructure (both passive and active) between mobile TSPs.
Suggested action: Passive sharing of infrastructure such as masts and antennas is already the preferred
solution in Ghana. Sharing of the electricity supply and site electronics should also be encouraged by
NCA and should not be prevented by competition rules.
4.4 Wireless and fibre-based broadband networks compared
The deployment of a broadband infrastructure would help to realise the NCA vision of an information rich
knowledge-based society and economy through the development, deployment and exploitation of ICTs and
could help to achieve UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 131 such as improving literacy rates,
improving maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability, and facilitating development as described
in Section 3.2.
For high-speed broadband communications, optical fibre provides the highest capacity, and the majority of
broadband plans in developed countries are defining goals of between 10 to 100 Mbit/s 132 . An optical fibre
system such as Gigabit Passive Optical Network (G-PON) can provide this capacity at less than 1mW in the
light path per location. To provide this capacity over a mobile network would require the user to be within
100 metres of a base station (as is currently the case for all high-speed WiFi) and for that base station to be
emitting more than 1 Watt. A further problem for mobile TSPs is how to deliver sufficient radio power inside
buildings. Building materials in walls typically reduce the signal power by a factor of 10 or more 133 . To
provide nationwide broadband roaming at this capacity per user would be highly energy intensive with
current technologies and therefore is currently considered an unnecessary goal. It is more economic and
energy efficient to provide one fibre to each termination point (building or pole top) and use the best
available customer premises network e.g. WiFi to allow roaming within the area of the subscriber premises
and connect to the user’s device. It is strongly recommended that Ghana invests in fibre access technology
whenever an infrastructure investment opportunity arises.
When comparing fixed access and wireless for broadband services, Franco Bernabè, CEO and President of
Telecom Italia said in his address at the ITU Workshop “Moving to a Green Economy through ICT Standards”
on 6th September 2011 that wireless is 100 times more energy intensive than fixed 134 . In his presentation at
NOC 2009, Valladolid, Spain, Lowell Lamb showed that WiMAX per subscriber power is 52.6 Watts (for up to
3.5 Mbit/s capacity near the base station) whereas a state-of-the art PON is 3.2W per user (for up to
1 Gbit/s capacity) 135 . Note that the PON operates with 16 times less power per subscriber and can deliver
30 times the capacity. More can be read about the state-of-the-art of wireless and fibre access systems in
these References 136, 137 .
Mobile networks need to coexist with fibre networks in the information society. They satisfy different needs.
Mobile networks are mainly used for communications on the move and fixed networks are used mainly for
deskwork or entertainment. In Ghana, mobile networks have many times more subscribers than the fixed
network, and so despite the additional energy consumption of mobile networks, it is considered that the
many benefits of a basic broadband service require that attention is given to upgrading mobile networks to
expand the reach of this service. Ideally, this would be achieved without adding fill-in base stations to
achieve the necessary capacity. Investment in new infrastructure should focus on providing sufficient fibre
capacity to put Ghana on a path to compete with and enjoy the benefits of richer economies. An upgrade
path which aims to provide superfast services over wireless alone will lead to a future with greatly reduced
energy-efficiency and higher GHG emissions than with fibre.
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