Environmental impact of a telecommunication service

Abstract

The aim of this study is to apply the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to a telecommunication (TLC) service. The automatic answering and messages storage service for the fixed network has been chosen as a case study because of its large utilization. Two different systems, providing the same service to the users, have been studied. The environmental impact of the "centralized answering machine" system and the "home answering machine" have been evaluated and compared. The environmental impacts of the answering and message storing service are mainly generated in the production of the apparatus supplying the service and their use phases. In the use of LCA methodology application to this service, several problems, like the functional unit and the boundary cuts, have to be solved. A TLC system is a multi-services provider, the allocation of the energy, materials and waste to one specific service have to be properly managed. The detailed study of components and material balance was done to perform the LCA. The inventory data was obtained from: a commercial database (where available), specialized literature and data sheet and direct experimental data. The study allows quantification of the decrease in the environmental impact for the centralized solution in order of magnitude. It is also shown that after very few years the usage phase of the service become more important in the environmental impact than the production phase.