Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions by the Indian Mobile Telecom Industry

The Indian mobile telecom industry, one of the fastest growing sectors in India, had 5843 million subscribers in 2010-11 registering an annual growth rate of 4915%. The energy consumed by the sector was 163 PJ and the corresponding CO2 emission was estimated at 329 million tons. In this paper, the mobile telecom industry is dis-aggregated into various segments, based on the life-cycle of the device, and each segment’s contribution to the overall energy consumption and its respective CO2 emissions are discussed.