13 Oct 2021

Orange & Nokia enhance “circularity” to combat climate change

Global telecoms giants Orange and Nokia have agreed a dual commitment to reduce carbon emissions by making greater use of refurbished equipment in their network infrastructure.

As part of what the duo describe as a “groundbreaking agreement”, refurbished network equipment will be offered by Nokia to all Orange subsidiaries via BuyIn, the procurement alliance of Orange and Deutsche Telekom.

Announcing the agreement on Twitter, Nokia president Pekka Lundmark said “re-use of resources is central to the fight against climate change and we’re proud to partner with Orange to improve circularity in the telecoms industry”.

On the Orange side, this agreement is part of a larger programme called OSCAR which will contribute to the achievement of the Net Zero Carbon objective in 2040 set by the group.

Initially the joint commitment will focus on greater use of refurbished components of RAN (Radio Access Network) equipment, and the duo claimed this will expand into re-use of other network equipment in the “medium to long term”. The deal covers RAN equipment across technology generations including 3G, 4G and 5G, according to Orange.