Alcatel-Lucent has new knob to play with

Alcatel-Lucent on Monday announced the Green Touch initiative - spearheaded by its research arm Bell Labs and launched in conjunction with 14 others, telcos included - a project designed to create new network kit that will ultimately bring about a 1,000-fold reduction in the CO2 emissions created by telecoms networks worldwide.

But the company had its work cut out persuading journalists at the London launch event that optimising network equipment for energy usage will not impact on other areas, such as performance or price.

Today's networks are optimised for the tremendous growth the industry has experienced in recent years, explained Bell Labs head of research Gee Rittenhouse. "There is [now] an opportunity to optimse for both [growth and power]," he added.

"Now we have a new knob inside of the industry that we can play with too," he said.

Interesting analogy...