“The reason this project is so compelling is not just the lower cost but also the social and economic imperatives,” said Ben Soppitt, director of strategic initiatives for the GSMA. “It engages people in the local economy, even if they don't use a mobile phone. It provides the potential for the mobile user to become a major user of alternative energy. And it encourages overall development. In Nigeria, the carriers are creating more power than the electrical utilities.”

The project has its trade-offs. While encouraging cleaner power generation and stimulating the local economy, the green base station project can have some un-green consequences. While palm oil is an efficient biomass, demand for palm oil cultivation in Southeast Asia has led to rapid deforestation of the rain forests, offsetting much, if not all, of the positive environmental effects palm oil generates. The industry can't just build a cleaner generator and leave it at that if its goal is overall environmental conservation, said Elaine Weidman, head of corporate responsibility for Ericsson.

Ericsson is trying to encourage upcoming biodiesel project uses of other crops, the cultivation of which has a lesser impact on the environment. Caster beans and soy beans are both good alternatives, but Ericsson is promoting the use of jatropha, a naturally growing plant in Africa and Asia, which already helps power trains in India.

For all their green potential, biodiesel base stations aren't likely to come to the developed world any time soon. Centrally generated power will always be more efficient than locally generated electricity. But there is the possibility of carriers using biodiesel generators as backup power supplies and during emergencies such as hurricanes in the U.S.

In addition, Ericsson is supporting other initiatives to make its network equipment less fuel hungry or environmentally damaging. Some of those innovations have occurred naturally as the vendor builds more efficient next-generation equipment (the typical softswitch, for instance, uses 90% less power than the equivalent number of circuit switches), but many of those projects have been proactive initiatives by Ericsson. The vendor has begun to sell lead-free battery alternatives and is phasing out heavy metals in its electronics equipment, Weidman said. It has deployed base stations fueled entirely by solar panels. Furthermore, Ericsson has set a goal to reduce overall power consumption in the network by 2008 through overall efficiency improvements.

Although Ericsson certainly wants the reputation of a green company, it readily admits that much of the drive for power efficiency comes from economic reasons. As the majority of sales of new network equipment shifts from the developed to the developing world, there is enormous pressure on vendors to cut equipment and deployment costs. But a vendor can discount equipment only so far before losing all profit incentive, Burgendaul said. Ericsson instead has chosen to focus on building opex savings into its gear, rather than focusing on building a cheaper, small base station, he said.