• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Bid to tide over power shortages in rural centres

A BASE station

New Delhi June 14 In a bid to tide over the lack of conventional electricity in rural areas, mobile operators are now looking at using biofuels to power their base stations.

Idea Cellular, Ericsson and the GSM Association's Development Fund on Thursday announced that four mobile base stations powered by locally produced bio-fuels have been set up in Maharashtra.

All four locations are greenfield sites that have not previously had access to a mobile network and are located in areas with unreliable power supply.

The biodiesel for the base stations initially comes from fish oil and waste vegetable oil — essentially used frying oils from local restaurants. In the long term, locally produced jatropha oil will be used. A similar project was earlier carried by Ericsson for an operator in Africa.

Biodiesel has several advantages over conventional diesel as a power source for base stations. An important factor is that it is produced locally, creating employment in rural areas while reducing the need for transportation. Bio-diesel has a much lower impact on the environment than conventional diesel.

The cleaner burning renewable fuel also requires fewer site visits and extends the life of the base station generator, reducing operator costs.

Social benefits

Mr Sanjeev Aga, Managing Director, IDEA Cellular, said: "The use of biofuels is helping us bring the social and economical benefits that access to communication bring to rural communities in India."

Mr Tom Phillips, Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer of the GSMA, the global trade association for mobile operators, said:

"Exploring alternative power solutions, such as biofuels, is key to the development of cost-effective ways to extend mobile networks to the 20 per cent of the world's population that don't have coverage today."

Mr Mats Granryd, President of Ericsson India, said: "Solutions to solve the power challenges associated with expanding rural coverage will help operators reach people beyond the electricity grid. We are pleased to pioneer biofuel into the telecom industry."

Other mobile operators are also expected to follow suit as they roll out their network to remote areas. BSNL, for instance, has hired a fleet of trucks for transporting diesel to power its base stations in remote areas. The company could save a lot of money by deploying bio-diesel solutions.

More Stories on : Non-conventional Energy | Telecommunications

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Mobile operators go for biofuel to power base stations

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line