Today, NCTA and CEA announced a new voluntary agreement among major equipment manufacturers and companies representing 90 percent of the residential broadband market to improve the energy efficiency of routers, modems, and certain other devices (collectively known as small network equipment, or SNE) that consumers use to access the Internet. You can get the details here, including the full list of signatories, but the good news for consumers is that this new agreement is expected to help reduce energy consumed in SNE devices by about 10 to 20 percent compared to current models.
Broadband already delivers significant overall energy savings for consumers and the environment simply by facilitating telecommuting. While modems and routers are not the number-one energy consumers in your home, their use has surged. In fact, ninety percent of American homes use three or more Internet-connected devices. Improving their energy efficiency can add up to real power and cost savings.
“The prior agreement has saved consumers $168 million in energy bills.”
The SNE agreement follows the path of earlier work done by the cable and consumer electronics industry to adopt and implement a similar Voluntary Agreement aimed at making set-top boxes more energy efficient.
This prior agreement has already led to tangible results and, as estimated by independent auditor, reduced national set top energy consumption by 4.4 percent in just the first year of the agreement. This has saved consumers roughly $168 million in energy bills.
Like the earlier set-top box agreement, the SNE Agreement demonstrates the progress that can be made through industry collaboration. Compliance will be assured through independent audits and lab tests, and the auditor’s published annual reports will enable the public to measure progress.
CableLabs, the cable industry’s non-profit research and development consortium has made a significant contribution to the development of the technical specification in the SNE agreement. The support of its professional testing staff, use of the CableLabs Energy Lab, and its coordination of the many contributors to the technical specification were paramount in creating this voluntary agreement.
As the cable industry continues in its quest to offer world-class Internet products and services, we’re confident this latest SNE Agreement is good news for consumers and will continue the trend of more energy efficient devices in American homes.