Can Telcos Target Broadband Power to Boost Data Capacity?

Broadband energy efficiency is making room for the expansion of Europe’s data infrastructure. 

The Broadband Forum estimates that updates to in-home broadband equipment could save up to 1.3TWh of electricity each year – enough to power 70 new small data centres across the continent.

As home devices such as gateways, repeaters and set-top boxes adopt low-power and deep standby modes, idle energy use begins to fall. 

Spread across around 200 million broadband-connected households in the EU, the collective savings are substantial.

The Forum says that this level of energy could cover the annual residential electricity demand of cities such as Athens, Lisbon or Copenhagen.

David Cluytens, Chief HGW Standardization Architect at SoftAtHome says: “As connected homes grow increasingly sophisticated, energy efficiency is becoming a defining design consideration for broadband equipment.

“This work from the Broadband Forum reflects a collective global industry effort to align broadband technologies with sustainability objectives, such as those outlined in the French Energy Transition Law for Green Growth.”

Energy-efficient upgrades at network level

The efficiency improvements come via updates to the Broadband Forum’s TR-181 Issue 2 Amendment 20 data model. 

This model allows broadband service providers (BSPs) and hardware manufacturers to introduce energy-saving features while maintaining the required quality of service.

TR-181 supports remote control of core broadband technologies – such as Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, xPON and Thread – that typically remain powered even when idle. These can now be managed in a standardised way when deployed using the User Services Platform (USP/TR-369).

The update also helps BSPs coordinate power management across devices from different vendors by promoting interoperability between hardware and management platforms.

Craig Thomas, CEO of Broadband Forum says: “The latest power saving efforts highlight how the Broadband Forum’s members continue to look for ways to improve economic and environmental sustainability for the industry.

“The TR-181 update represents a huge step forward for hitting sustainability targets in the years ahead.”

Another key feature of the update is the ability to manage energy use at the component level. 

It allows remote installation of energy-saving controls across different hardware via containerised software, without physical updates.

Reducing idle power use in homes

The update introduces targeted features that reduce consumption when devices are inactive. These include:

• Ethernet Energy Detect Power Down (EDPD)
• LED brightness controls
• CPU frequency scaling

Also included is the ability to reduce active Wi-Fi transmit and receive antenna chains during low-demand periods. 

This allows devices to meet connectivity needs without using unnecessary power.

Orange offers an example of how this applies at scale. By turning off the 5GHz radio for 10 hours per day across 11 million Livebox routers in France, it calculates savings of 64GWh annually. These savings apply only to the Wi-Fi radio, all other router functions remain active.

As idle consumption falls at household level, the surplus energy becomes available for other sectors. In particular, data centres – which are central to cloud services, ecommerce and high-bandwidth applications – face growing power demands.

Redirecting energy from inactive broadband equipment to support digital infrastructure aligns with broader operational and environmental goals. It also supports national targets like those set out in the French Energy Transition Law.

Energy management is now becoming an integral part of broadband device design. As providers implement TR-181-based tools, they are able to meet efficiency objectives without disrupting home internet services. 

The industry continues to look at embedded power control as one of the clearest routes to sustainable digital growth.