Breezeline has doubled down on environmental sustainability with the deployment of its first bucket truck retrofitted with electric power. The cable operator intends to launch a fleet of these trucks in hopes of reducing operational emissions.
Breezeline spokesperson Andrew Walton told Fierce the company expects to retrofit additional gas-powered vehicles over the next year, and those “will be augmented by newly purchased electric bucket trucks when they become available.”
To retrofit the trucks, Breezeline partnered with ZEVX, a manufacturer of battery electric power systems. Walton said Breezeline aims to reduce its operational emissions by 65% by 2030, noting the company “[has] strategies to overachieve this and expect [s] to evolve the majority of our fleet by then.”
He added the EV bucket trucks will likely require less upkeep and maintenance, therefore keeping more vehicles in service for direct customer interactions and service-related activities.
Telcos at large are striving to cut down carbon emissions, many of which come from vehicle fleets. AT&T for instance has reported fleet emissions account for 52% of its Scope 1 CO2e emissions, whereas Comcast said its fleet has contributed 18% of its emissions.
Launching EV bucket trucks isn’t the only way Breezeline is stepping up its renewable energy consumption. Walton said Breezeline is also undertaking “network energy efficiencies such as our FTTH deployments in our expansion markets.”
“In addition, we’ve introduced product enhancements, like cloud-based IPTV – Breezeline Stream TV – which relies on more energy-efficient consumer premise equipment than traditional STBs (set top boxes),” he said. “We’re also augmenting our existing energy sources with renewable energy, including solar farms and through green utility tariff purchases on the supply side.”
Network enhancements
In other developments, Breezeline last week announced it completed bandwidth upgrades for customers in Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio. The networks in those markets now have a capacity of 1.2 Tbps.
The operator acquired its Cleveland and Columbus markets from WOW! in September 2021, with Walton noting the bandwidth augmentation took about 18 months to complete.
“We began with an initial augmentation and transition of WOW circuits using third-party lit services which added bandwidth in May 2022,” he said. “We followed up with dark fiber in March 2023. The separation of the Breezeline network from the WOW! network was completed in June 2023.”