Market
09
Oct
2024
min read

CommScope joins GSMA Equipment Marketplace to promote circularity in telecom industry

CommScope’s Outdoor Wireless Networks segment has officially partnered with the GSMA Equipment Marketplace, a cloud-based platform designed to support companies in buying, reusing, reselling, and recycling network assets. This partnership, alongside other industry players like Vodafone and ProLabs, raises the number of partners to 41. The platform’s goal is to help the telecom sector achieve its net zero carbon targets and maintain financial sustainability.

How the GSMA Equipment Marketplace supports circularity

Launched earlier this year with Shields Environmental Group, the GSMA Equipment Marketplace aims to transform how fixed, mobile, and private networks are managed. By providing a platform for procurement and decommissioning, the marketplace helps minimize the extraction of environmentally damaging raw materials and enables operators to meet sustainability goals. Currently, it boasts four million pieces of equipment available for reuse, with 350,000 items sold over the last year.

Through the platform, telecom operators and equipment manufacturers gain global visibility of stock, enabling efficient searches for parts, price comparisons, and easy order submissions. The marketplace also facilitates selling and recycling equipment, ensuring the extension of product life cycles.

Industry leaders support the GSMA initiative

Steven Moore, the GSMA’s Head of Climate Action, highlighted the importance of embracing circular business models: “CommScope and others using the GSMA Equipment Marketplace show the mobile industry’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and reliance on virgin materials.”

Michael Wolfe, VP and CTO at CommScope, emphasized the marketplace's role in extending solution lifecycles and enhancing resource efficiency. ProLabs also echoed these sentiments, with VP Sam Walker noting their support through compatible optics that align with industry sustainability goals.

The path to net zero in the mobile sector

The GSMA Board has set a target for the mobile industry to reach net zero emissions by 2050, with an intermediate goal to cut emissions by 45% below 2020 levels by 2030. However, achieving this target requires significant reductions in Scope 3 supply chain emissions, which constitute about 75% of the industry’s total carbon output.

The GSMA estimates that network equipment manufacturing and site construction contribute 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. The marketplace aims to reduce these figures by encouraging reuse and recycling, which are essential to meeting the industry’s environmental goals.

Additional initiatives for circularity

Alongside the marketplace, the GSMA has introduced two circularity targets to increase mobile phone recycling rates. With 85% of phones currently not being recycled and over five billion devices sitting idle globally, the GSMA's initiatives focus on improving collection through operator take-back schemes and preventing devices from ending up in landfills. Sixteen major operators, including BT Group, Deutsche Telekom, and Orange, have already committed to these targets.

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