Optus, Ericsson join forces on energy savings

Optus expects to save as much as 26 percent of the energy consumed by its radio access network, after deploying a range of energy efficiency solutions in conjunction with Ericsson.

The technologies are software tools called Massive MIMO Sleep mode, and Booster Carrier Sleep.

Massive MIMO Sleep lets radios hibernate when there’s no traffic, saving around 70 percent of the energy that would be consumed if the radios were fully active.

Booster Carrier Sleep allows the radio carriers to be switched on and off dynamically based on traffic.

The two companies are showing off the solutions at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The software has been deployed at trial sites in Sydney and Melbourne, the companies said in a statement.

They said Massive MIMO Sleep mode is saving 2.5kWh per day, per site, while the Booster Carrier Sleep feature saves 2.23kWh per day, per site.

Combined with modernisation and enhancements completed during 2023, Optus and Ericsson said, daily energy savings at radio sites could reach between 24 percent and 26 percent.

“The enhancements made possible by the Ericsson Massive MIMO Sleep mode and Booster Carrier Sleep solutions are helping Optus take a step closer to our sustainability commitment to reduce our 2025 emissions by 25 percent, from a 2015 baseline and ensure network capacity and performance is maintained, even as power needs are minimised," managing director of networks Lambo Kanagaratnam said.

Optus financials released

News of the technology deployment coincided with the release of Singtel financial results, which showed that Optus’ November 2023 outage had cost it $61 million.

Optus eventually attributed the near full-day outage to bad router data received from a peer, which disconnected routers receiving the data from its network.

In the third quarter of 2023-2024, which ended on December 31, Optus recorded $1.8 billion in revenue, down from $1.9 billion year-on-year, with EBITDA down from $474 million to $465 million.