Environmental Impact Assessment of Mobile Communication Networks in Lagos State

The exponential increase in the energy demand and carbon footprint of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services are problems of global concern. There is no general solution to this problem globally because energy sources and the resulting environmental impacts differ from country to country. However, there is a need to identify the causes of these pollutants and locally assess their impacts to proffer a lasting solution. In this paper, we evaluate the energy demands of the telecommunication sites in Lagos, Nigeria and the environmental impact resulting from their operations. The periods the base transceiver stations (BTSs) are powered by the national grid were investigated and we considered the emission generated from the alternative energy sources the service providers adopt in the absence of national grid supply. The findings from our study revealed that the service providers depend largely on diesel generators (DG) for their operations, and the entire management of the site is not energy-efficient. Based on the peculiarity of our study location, we present viable green approaches and achievable recommendations that can be implemented by the service providers and the major stakeholders to reduce the negative environmental impact resulting from the operations of these telecommunication sites