Lately in the land of red, white and blue, people are talking a lot about green, including wireless service providers. In an industry that boasts 263 million subscribers who get a heap of stuff with their service, carriers can have a large carbon footprint. There’s the phone, its box, booklets, CDs and small dictionaries of instructions . and monthly bills, which typically are printed on paper.
Paperless billing
Many carriers have become paper-conscious, and the trend seems to be moving toward paperless billing for most carriers. The four top-tier wireless carriers – AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. – have some type of online payment option. In addition, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless have promotions to plant a tree for each customer who enrolls in paperless billing, meaning all billing will be done online.
T-Mobile USA partnered with The Arbor Day Foundation to plant the trees. Verizon Wireless’s Green Bill is similar. Customers can log on to the carrier’s Web site and enroll in the program to eliminate monthly mailings and handle their accounts. Verizon Wireless partnered with American Forests to plant the trees; both tree-planting campaigns are temporary.
Jeffrey Nelson, spokesman for Verizon Wireless, said customers used to get a bill in the mail by default; now they automatically can view their bills online. Lisa Mott-Zimmermann, a spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel, said the carrier encourages e-billing. Sprint Nextel offers a $5 credit and ringtone incentives for signing up for paperless billing.
“The company’s goal is to even more strongly encourage customers to use this option; a trial is planned for this fall utilizing an outside vendor that will be focused on increasing usage,” Mott-Zimmermann said.
AT&T Mobility now offers the paperless-billing option on its Web site and recently launched an eBill service through its relationship with Fiserv’s CheckFree, allowing customers to access their account information through more than 3,000 of the financials institution’s Web sites. The carrier is also a member of the PayItGreen Alliance, a group of financial institutions and billing companies that push customers to move to Web payments. Regional carrier Leap Wireless International Inc. also urges its customers to opt for paperless bills.
Less packaging
Packaging seems to be another wasteful area for carriers. A T-Mobile USA spokeswoman said the carrier is reducing the size of its packaging and using more recycled materials. For example, cardboard trays are used in packaging instead of plastic trays. Verizon Wireless’ Nelson also said this is something his company is beginning to work on to make sure new products don’t have layer after layer of packaging.
“It’s a new, but very strong focus,” Nelson said. “We’re re-evaluating a lot of our practices.”
Another solution for the waste accompanied by all the “stuff” is a phone recycling program. T-Mobile USA features a handset-recycling program, which promotes reusing old wireless devices down to the core. The items recycled include handsets, personal digital assistants, wireless computer cards, spare batteries, phone chargers, cables, headsets, earpieces, cases, clips and cradles. Sprint Nextel said since 2001, it has kept more than 13 million wireless phones out of the waste stream through recycling efforts such as Sprint Project Connect and the Sprint BuyBack program.
Last year, AT&T Mobility launched Cellphones for Soldiers, which is a recycling program that sends phone cards to U.S. troops. Once phones are recycled, CPFS uses the proceeds to buy free phone cards for U.S. military members and their families. During its first year, the program raised $1.4 million, providing all troops in Iraq at the time with a 20-minute phone card.
Third-party assistance
And recycling is good business. Houdinisoft Inc. allows customers to keep their phones and bring them to a new carrier, helping to recycle devices directly back into the marketplace. Houdinisoft drives MetroPCS Communications Inc.’s new MetroFlash application, which allows customers to bring in a handset from a different carrier and activate it on MetroPCS’ network at the point of sale. Rex Lee, VP of business development and general manager, said this service is about as green as you can get.
“With recycling phones, people thrown them in bins and they get sifted through and thrown away,” Lee said. “These are recycled back into the marketplace immediately; they’re not going through multiple channels.”
Rapid Repair offers a similar service; however, it specializes in repairing, servicing and even purchasing old phones, particularly the original version of Apple Inc.’s iPhone. Rapid Repair’s Aaron Vronko said the company will pay people for old iPhones.
Green operations
Operators said they also are working to make their facilities greener. AT&T Mobility recently announced its membership in The Green Grid, which works to improve energy efficiency in data centers worldwide. The carrier also plans to participate in the Energy Star Data Center Infrastructure Rating by providing data center performance to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency while it develops a new rating system.
Verizon Wireless also is working to reduce power consumption in call centers by installing management software on employees’ personal computers to help save energy.
“It takes over when you leave,” Nelson said. “It does things like put the computer on auto shut-down and sleep schedules.”
The software is being utilized on 61,000 PCs and is reducing Verizon Wireless’ energy costs by roughly $1 million to $1.5 million per year, Nelson said. A pair of Verizon Wireless retail outlets were among the first to earn the EPA’s Energy Star.
Sprint Nextel said it takes an active role to conserve energy at its 200-acre campus in Overland Park, Kan., dedicating 60% of the campus to green space, Mott-Zimmermann said. The carrier uses golf carts and Segways at their facilities, and Sprint Nextel also provides bicycles near buildings for its employees to use for free. There are about two dozen bikes, with helmets around campus for those who want to take a more eco-friendly commute to work.
