This report is built on a large primary data set for operational energy consumption and carbon footprint, collected from telecom operators in different countries, and complemented by publicly available data from other operators. The purpose of the study is to estimate the current magnitude and trends for the electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions of telecom operators globally, and the primary data was collected with the support of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO).

In this report, the electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions of telecom operators are investigated, to calculate the ICT network (ie fixed and mobile telecom networks) operations share of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector impact globally, historically (2010 and 2013) as well as currently (2015). The study covers the ICT networks, defined as fixed and mobile telcom networks, and related operator activities, but excludes enterprise networks, data centers and end-user equipment. The study draws from a similar study of ICT in Sweden 2015 [1] and uses measured and collected data. End-user equipment is outside the scope of this study.