Sri Lanka’s Dialog Telekom will deploy ten solar and wind-powered base stations with funding from the GSMA’s Green Power for Mobile programme. The trial, which will deploy five off-grid and five on-grid base stations, has seen two sites go live this month and a further eight sites will go live in March and April this year. The goal of the trial is to use a number of different scenarios with equipment from eight different vendors to demonstrate the range of options available and the commercial viability of rolling out mobile networks using renewable forms of energy.
“Being able to utilise practical, cost effective and renewable sources of power is crucial for operators wanting to provide a broad range of mobile coverage, over vast rural areas, far beyond the reach of national electricity grids,” said Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer for the GSMA. “Dialog Telekom, as part of the GSMA’s Green Power for Mobile programme, has used a number of different scenarios to prove to the industry that renewable energy is a real and viable alternative to on-grid and generator power.”http://www.gsmworld.com
