The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) announced a new voluntary agreement to improve the energy efficiency of Internet modems, routers and other equipment that deliver broadband. The agreement will improve the energy efficiency of small network equipment (SNE) by 10 to 20 percent compared to typical, recently-deployed devices.
Signatories to the agreement to date include service providers AT&T, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, CenturyLink, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, DIRECTV, Time Warner Cable and Verizon; and manufacturers Actiontec, ARRIS, Cisco, D-Link, EchoStar Technologies, NETGEAR, Pace and Ubee Interactive.
The new SNE voluntary agreement runs through 2017 and is modeled on the voluntary agreement for set-top box energy conservation, launched in 2013 by the pay-TV industry, consumer electronics manufacturers and energy efficiency advocates. In its first year the set-top box voluntary agreement achieved a 4.4 percent reduction in national energy consumption by set-top boxes, even as deployed stock increased that year. According to the agreement’s first annual report, the improved set-top box energy efficiency saved the equivalent to the output of one-half of a 500 MW power plant.
As with the set-top box agreement, this new voluntary commitment requires broadband service providers and retail equipment manufacturers to publicly report SNE energy use including annual progress reports by an independent third party.
