Energy and Climate

On November 1, President Biden joined world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. Broadband also is a “green strategy” that can help lessen impacts on the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is a key linchpin, as is housing, for a triple bottom-line strategy to promote sustainability: prosperous economy, quality environment, and community equity.

Being digitally connected is such a central feature of our lives that we don’t often stop to think about how it actually works. Transient data, a combination of ones and zeros, pass through a surprisingly tangible physical infrastructure of fiber optic cables connecting centralized data servers — infrastructure that is vulnerable to an increasingly erratic and punishing climate. The reality of digital disconnection was brought into sharper focus during the COVID-19 pandemic; fundamental aspects of our daily lives shifted online instantly, from schooling to remote work to health care.

AT&T announced it is investing tens of millions of dollars to further harden its network in Louisiana against the impact of hurricanes and tropical storms by burying fiber-optic infrastructure previously deployed on poles across some of the hardest-hit areas during Hurricane Ida.

AT&T is preparing to upgrade customers in three Louisiana towns to GPON fiber after Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc on its copper assets. In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T said Hurricane Ida “significantly damaged” its copper cables and terminals in Baton Rouge, Denham Springs and Zachary (LA) when it made landfall in late August 2021.

Nokia is throwing its weight behind an initiative it calls Broadband Zero, aiming to help connect as many people as possible with a minimal impact on the environment. Sandy Motley, President of Fixed Networks at Nokia, said the company’s Broadband Zero campaign is based on four key pillars: zero left behind, zero limits, zero touch and zero waste. She explained the first pillar is focused on applying fiber and fixed wireless access (FWA) technologies to connect every home and building as quickly as possible.

Major US wireless carriers have long touted the benefits of fifth-generation wireless networks, claiming faster speeds and reduced latency. But less attention has been paid to the environmental costs. While 5G networks can be more energy efficient at transferring data—up to 90% more efficient per unit of data transferred than their 4G predecessors, a study by STL Partners and Vertiv found—5G can also sap more energy over its life cycle because it will drive the increased use of data centers and 5G-enabled technologies and products.

Almost half a million cable, broadband, and voice subscribers are not being provided service in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Ida according to the Federal Communications Commission. The number of those not able to access service is even greater given the more than a million without power. Louisiana has the vast majority of subscribers without either phone, TV or internet access, or a combination of those, at 468,674.

As Hurricane Ida pummeled New Orleans, officials told residents needing help to flag down a police officer or go to a fire station. The city’s 911 emergency calling service, served by AT&T, wasn’t working. The failure, rectified on August 30, is helping to fuel calls for Washington regulators to demand greater resiliency for mobile phone networks in the face of storms, fires and other natural disasters.

The Gulf Coast region is just beginning to recover from Hurricane Ida, with a significant impact on cell towers in the state of Louisiana. According to the Federal Communications Commission, 52 percent of cell towers in the hurricane’s path in the state are out of service as of August 30. That equates to 1,437 towers, most of them down due to loss of power, and some localities are far worse than others. Terrebonne Parrish has 100 percent of its 81 towers out of service, while Lafourche Parrish has 97 percent down.