Why are 5G base stations being powered off every day?

Selected 5G base stations in China are being powered off every day from 21:00 to next day 9:00 to reduce energy consumption and lower electricity bills. 5G base stations are truly large consumers of energy such that electricity bills have become one of the biggest costs for 5G network operators.

Can network energy saving technologies mitigate 5G energy consumption?

This technical report explores how network energy saving technologies that have emerged since the 4G era, such as carrier shutdown, channel shutdown, symbol shutdown etc., can be leveraged to mitigate 5G energy consumption.

What will 5G era entail?

In the 5G era, everyone will not worry about the harm of electromagnetic radiation to the body, and everyone will no longer oppose the establishment of base stations in communities. Because no matter where you live in any community, there are densely packed base stations.

How much electricity will a 5G base station save a year?

The current 200,000 base stations can save 1.2 billion annually. By the end of this year, 1 million 5G base stations will be built, saving 6 billion in a year. If there are more than 2 million base stations, 12 billion electricity can be saved a year, which is equivalent to China Unicom’s total profit in one year.

How to increase 5G signal strength?

In order to ensure the signal strength, the power must be increased. In order not to be blocked by walls, many base stations must be densely placed in the cell to avoid being blocked by too many walls. If you want to enjoy the high speed of the 5G era, you have to increase the number of base stations more than ten times or even hundreds of times.

Why do we need a 5G base station?

TrendForce research vice president Kelly Hsieh indicates that, from a technical perspective, the growth in mobile data consumption, low-latency applications (such as self-driving cars, remote surgeries, and smart manufacturing), and large-scale M2M (smart cities) requires an increase in 5G base stations for support.