The telecom industry has the ability to aid in the decarbonization of other industries, but operators will need to shift traditional business models to "connect and compute," according to IBM VP Marisa Viveros and Technologist Christine Dee.

Connect and compute is an emerging model that leans on the low-latency and high fidelity 5G brings. With this model, "connectivity becomes widely accessible and ubiquitous, and telcos achieve additional revenue connected services built on top of that," the authors explained in a blog.

This represents a significant change from traditional telco models where operators build and sell access to their networks for mobile devices or broadband, and then third parties sell connected services like software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, online gaming, or streaming to businesses and consumers.

The issue is these applications' performance can be hindered as a result of network bandwidth or data throughput limitations, Viveros and Dee explained.

But "if these factors were managed directly by the network, the services could be optimized to help achieve the right combination of bandwidth and throughput to enable the desired performance," they said.

To that point, they urge telcos to consider transforming "from their role as purveyors of connectivity to a broader role of connected service providers."

For example, smart agriculture powered by telco offerings help businesses conserve water and lower emissions through remote monitoring and automation capabilities. In urban areas, smart buildings lower energy costs through monitoring and HVAC and lighting management, Viveros and Dee explained.

Telcos can also provide intelligent emissions tracking to help other sectors measure and reduce their emissions. A good deal of the complexity associated with lowering emissions is simply "knowing where to enact change and how to measure the impact," the authors wrote.

If telco networks are the one common denominator among all connected operations and paired with artificial intelligence (AI), operators will be able to help enterprises measure, analyze, and identify emissions sources.

"In aggregate, and when paired with AI for precision insights and cloud technologies to enable scale, these efficiencies can help produce a massive change. Yet all of this is only feasible if telcos undergo transformation to reimagine their networks from simply connectivity, and instead enter the era of 'connect and compute,'" Viveros and Dee explained.

Although telecom shows great potential to push other industries to decarbonize, operators also need to focus on how to eliminate their own emissions, which account for an estimated 4% of global CO2.

To address emissions associated with e-waste and use of mobile devices — which are considered operators' scope 3 emissions — telcos should focus on trade-in programs that reduce e-waste and semiconductor advancements that reduce the amount of energy needed to charge connected mobile devices.

Telcos also need to deeply consider the true energy efficiency of 5G networks.

Though some measurements deem 5G up to 90% more efficient than 4G, Gartner reported the increase in streaming, AI, and cloud services powered by 5G networks drives energy consumption right back up. "This means CSPs still need to think about how they power and operate their networks to reduce emissions," Viveros and Dee wrote.

Another key area for telcos to explore is back-up batteries, which are "essential to ensure first responders and critical infrastructure can continue to operate in the event of extreme weather" caused by climate change.

But rather than creating dedicated batteries for this purpose, telcos should tap into electric vehicles and other batteries in extreme weather events. This would limit the number of batteries produced while still supporting network stability, Viveros and Dee explained.