At MWC25, industry leaders from Mavenir, 1&1, and Virgin Media O2 explored how sustainability and cost savings go hand in hand for telecom operators. With network energy consumption at an all-time high, technologies like Open RAN, AI-driven network optimization, and liquid cooling are emerging as key solutions. Mavenir’s Bejoy Pankajakshan highlighted AI’s role in optimizing network activity, reducing energy use by up to 50%. Meanwhile, 1&1’s Michael Martin and Virgin Media O2’s Chris Buggie emphasized the importance of adapting to new hardware cycles and leveraging data center efficiencies to drive further savings.
The panelists agreed that sustainability is now a top priority—not just for environmental reasons but as a crucial business strategy. Customers, shareholders, and regulators increasingly expect operators to commit to greener networks. By integrating smarter technologies and rethinking infrastructure strategies, operators can significantly reduce operational costs while minimizing their carbon footprint. Want to know how leading telecom players are building sustainable networks? Watch the full discussion now.
Steve Saunders:
Welcome back to FNTV at MWC25. I'm Steve Saunders. Sustainability, it's been a perennial topic at MWC for years. But this year it's become a major focus of the event. Well, today we're here to speak Truth to Power, electrical power and talk about how innovative technologies like Open RAN and enhanced optics can drive significant savings in operational expenses while also helping save the environment. And I have an amazing lineup of guests here to discuss this. First, Bejoy Pankajakshan, chief technology and strategy officer from Mavenir. Welcome. Michael Martin, CEO of One-on-One, which is a mobile operator. And Chris Buggie, director of core application, infrastructure and cloud at Virgin Media O2. So Bejoy, let me start with you. Obviously, building more sustainable networks is clearly, it's good for the environment. But is there a business rationale for your customers and what technologies are available to them now to help them save costs on sustainability?
Bejoy Pankajakshan:
The business rationale definitely exists for the operators, considering that they own a large footprint of data centers. From a technology perspective, Mavenir has an end-to-end portfolio that covers radio as well as the core. And radio being the most energy-consuming part of the operator network, we have technologies in place, be it the physical radio weight and other newer technologies that's used in the radio to actually lower the power consumption. The use of AI, of course, is a key part in RAN as well as in the core. And within the core, the packet core, especially the data plan handling piece is where we have new technologies installed to actually leverage the capabilities of those products and get to 40 to 50% energy savings. And this is something that we had a press release as well this week.
Steve Saunders:
Yeah. 40 to 50%. That's extraordinary. Michael, speaking as a service provider, as an operator, what's the biggest challenge for you in addressing sustainability?
Michael Martin:
We are using only standard hardware. And I think that is one of the things that a Telco operator needs to learn. Standard hardware renewal cycles are much different than what the telecom is used to, much shorter. And getting most value out of it, getting used to those short cycles of renewals, I think that is one of the big new learnings. And the other one is implementing our architecture with very low footprint on antennas, having all intelligence, all servers in our regional data centers and learning how that technology is really working to get the most savings out of it. We do see 10 to 30% energy savings compared to traditional networks in our networks. So Open RAN is energy efficient.
Steve Saunders:
Yeah. So significant savings. Are you seeing similar savings, Chris? And do you have set sustainability goals in your network and how far along are you in achieving those?
Chris Buggie:
Yeah. So we're on the journey in VMR-2. There's a lot more to do I think in this space. And to Bejoy's point, we're working with Intel and AMD to try and expose some of these features and work with the partner community to help us around the power savings and ultimately try and reduce our OPEX within our data centers. So we believe that in the future we could see millions or tens of millions in opportunity in this space.
Steve Saunders:
So saving the world but also saving money.
Chris Buggie:
Indeed.
Steve Saunders:
And the optics of that look almost as good as the savings in OPEX as well as a business. Do they? Is that important to you?
Chris Buggie:
It's hugely important because that affects our bottom line.
Steve Saunders:
Okay. Bejoy, do you see any innovations or any developments coming down the pike which you think are going to be important for improving the sustainability profile of carriers?
Bejoy Pankajakshan:
Yeah, definitely. From a data center, going back to the point I made earlier, the user liquid cooling is one area that we are definitely seeing in the data centers. On the radio, which is the biggest energy-consuming part of the operator network. The use of new PA technology, which would advance as well. And then of course cannot discount the role that AI is going to have. Especially deciding what time of the day the network needs to be more active, when can you shut down servers, when can you shut down radios, which is all going to lead to a more efficient network that consumes less energy.
Steve Saunders:
Michael, do you think that being sustainable is important to your customers? Is it something that comes up? Do they ask you about it?
Michael Martin:
Yeah, definitely. It's important to our customers. It's important for our environment. It's important for everybody that cares, especially when they build a fourth network. A new network in a big country like Germany, sustainability needs to be sought on from the very beginning. Maybe different than 25 years ago when the last new network was built in Germany. Now it's different times and you need to sync it, security, sustainability needs to be in first place.
Steve Saunders:
Chris, do you get paid on sustainability goals? Is it part of your plan as a strategic insider, service provider operator? Are you judged on it?
Chris Buggie:
Yeah. I think we're judged on it. It's in our numbers that we publish and we publish those on an annual basis. And just to comment, it's hugely important not just to our customers but also to our shareholders as well in the whole industry.
Steve Saunders:
Fantastic. Well thanks guys. That was really, really interesting. That's it for now, for FNTV here at MWC25. Join us later for more news and analysis. FNTV. What are you looking at?