everything, everywhere

So, it’s not going to be T-Orange after all, then. T-Mobile and Orange have resisted the temptation of the obvious and have decided to run in a completely different direction, calling their joint venture everything, everywhere – perhaps a slightly hyperbolic name for a mobile company, even if it is the largest one in the UK, and one which appears something of a mouthful in comparison to the available competition (it has more syllables than the three other network operators put together).

Its ‘vision’ includes a single ‘super-network’ giving ‘unsurpassed coverage and capacity’ for customers (though 3 might take issue with this bit), and at a lesser impact on the environment. Few details are as yet available other than that the company will seek to combine both the Orange and T-Mobile networks and, by cutting out duplication, reduce the number of stations and sites that the company uses (which currently stand at some 27,000). Nevertheless, how this network looks, and operates, is a vitally important consideration not least given the terms on which the JV was approved (i.e. the guarantees given to 3; and the sale of spectrum). The company has, however, confirmed that all four of the companies served by the network (including both 3 and Virgin Mobile) will run on a common infrastructure.

The new company claims a customer base of more than 30 million people – ‘over half of the UK adult population’ (I can’t recall the companies trumpeting this sort of statistic while the regulators were looking at the proposed JV: funny, that!) and its press release helpfully breaks these down into pre-paid and contract mobile customers and Orange’s fixed network (the management of which was outsourced last month to BT) – so would seem to incorporate the potential for some double-counting.

The merged company will have 16,500 employees – 2,500 fewer than they had when the JV was announced seven months ago – and is, according to the same report, seeking savings of some £3.5bn by 2014 in shared infrastructure, technology and in the savings resulting from job cuts.

Not everything, everywhere for everyone, then.

A greener wireless industry

Telecoms companies have united in another green initiative, this time with the aim of achieving a 50% reduction in the energy consumption of so-called 4th generation (or LTE) mobile wireless communication networks, and with the aim of commercialising its work by the end of 2012. The Earth (Energy Aware Radio and neTwork tecHnologies) project is based on research into ways of saving energy in mobile networks, network components and radio interfaces with the aim of laying the foundations for a new generation of energy-efficient communications equipment.

Other than that, the company press release is really rather dense (which may well account for the distinct lack of interest amongst the UK press, even on what seems to be a slow news day). Indeed, the initiative seems to have got underway some three months ago and only now has a press release been put together about it. Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson are the lead names on the initiative (as indeed the former was on a previously announced green initiative, which I blogged about here) but it also encompasses 13 other partners, including research institutes and universities, and the European standards organisation, ETSI, alongside the telecoms partners.

LTE (Long-Term Evolution) is the name for the next generation of mobile, with a wide range of frequencies deployed to allow users to watch high-definition video and receive much faster downloads on their mobile devices. An auction encompassing LTE-appropriate spectrum has just been concluded in the Netherlands, while similar is currently underway in Germany. Plans in the UK, intended to have been facilitated by Kip Meek’s independent brokerage and accepted by the government, have been derailed both by operator objections and by the loss of key chunks of the Digital Economy Bill, but may return to the agenda after the general election.

So, the new initiative is timely and very welcome – even if the EARTH programme, if not its aims, suffers from an inevitable imprecision as well as the equally inevitable strong dose of corporate puff. Similar to the last initiative, however, my gripe remains the relative lack of UK involvement. The University of Surrey is one of the consortium partners, but UK involvement seems otherwise to be minimal. Leadership on these sorts of initiatives is up for grabs and it would be a shame were the technical expertise in energy efficiency generated by such initiatives to flow largely elsewhere.

Not just a picture from my hols…

… but also a reference not only to this week’s welcome economic news but also to the TUC’s forthcoming Going Green at Work conference, taking place on 15 March and being chaired by Prospect’s own Paul Noon.

A communications industry at least tinged with green

A welcome to Green Touch, the communications industry’s inititiave to reflect a green agenda in the level of power consumption taken up by communications networks, launched yesterday in London.

The initiative is led by Bell Labs, the R&D unit of Alcatel-Lucent, and comprises 15 founder members drawn both from the operator community, including AT&T, China Mobile, Telefonica, Portugal Telecom and Swisscom, and research organisations. Membership is open to all and Green Touch expects to welcome other industry players. Its agenda is driven by a number of issues:

– communications networks are eating up more energy, and at a faster pace as demand rises for capacity as a result of the huge rise in digital information being uploaded and shared

– today’s networks use more energy than they need to: if left unchecked, energy usage is projected to double over the next ten years

– demands on information and communication technologies are increasing as organisations look to tackle their own carbon footprint by making more use of ICT in terms of remote working.

In contrast, Green Touch’s aim is to research new technologies capable of bringing about a 1,000-fold reduction by 2015 in the carbon emissions created by the usage of telecoms networks today – a target intended to be practical although the industry believes that a reduction of ten times even that amount is possible. The 1,000-fold reduction is equivalent to 7.8GTn of CO2, or 15% of the total world emissions predicted by 2020, according to Telefonica.

Little is yet known about the initiative, apart from its aim to reduce power consumption, and the details of the project remain somewhat vague. Overall, the approach and the aims are welcome – it will assist the environment, improve expertise both at corporate and individual levels and it will also help support jobs in the industry. All these provide reasons enough to be supportive.

Nevertheless, how far the industry is prepared to go actually to deliver in practice the laudable aims of the initiative, in terms of the R&D investment that it will require and the level of patience that may be required before that investment secures a return, is, as always, a key point. Ben Verwaayen, chief executive of Alcatel-Lucent, spoke of the initiative taking up, in cash terms, ‘tens of millions’; this is, by itself, unlikely to allow the industry to identify itself with a green future: ‘more’ is clearly likely to be required and that, in turn, given the social benefits such technologies might bring, is likely to require government involvement. The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control is one of the founder members and, while DECC has been verbally supportive, it has as yet issued nothing specific in terms of communications, still less more tangible forms of support. For a government looking to replace an economic over-reliance on the financial services industry, and with its own clear commitment to a green agenda, that is a gap which needs to be filled.

Copenhagen – your help wanted

Owing to a mini-breakthrough at Copenhagen concerning the inclusion of the need for a ‘just transition’ in the negotiating texts, so that the transition to a green economy is properly planned with regard to jobs and skills, the TUC is asking people to let Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, know of workers’ support for the concept and requesting that he lobby hard in favour of the words ‘just transition’ being included in the final ministerial agreement.

You can find a draft e-mail to Miliband – and further information about what a just transition means, as well as the significance of the mini-breakthrough, at ToUChstone here.

Twitter users might like to use this to sign the simultaneous Twitter campaign.

Act now!

Trade union action points ahead of Copenhagen

Environmental issues feature all too rarely on this blog, but I’ve been prompted to put fingers to keyboard today by a series of e-mails that have dropped into my inbox over the last few days and which could individually all benefit from a bit more publicity.

Firstly, Stop Climate Chaos is holding an event in London on Saturday 5 December called The Wave – a series of events including a march and rally in support of a low carbon future, starting at 10 am and culminating in a circling of the Houses of Parliament. Blue gloves are required for the latter – an action symbolic of the threat that faces the UK if climate change is not tackled and the UK comes more closely to resemble the winter temperatures appropriate to this latitude. Stop Climate Change Scotland is also holding a mirror Wave event in Glasgow.

Secondly, the European Trades Union Congress will be participating in Copenhagen in support of its view of the need for a sustainable environment. You can read – and view – more about the ETUC’s approach here. Closer to home, the TUC’s Brendan Barber spoke meaningfully on green awareness as a way out of the recession at the TUC’s Post-Crisis conference last month while Philip Pearson has a series of thoughtful posts on Copenhagen over at ToUChstone.

Thirdly, HOPE not hate are organising an online petition following the news that BNP leader Nick Griffin is to attend the summit. The HOPE not hate petition is intended to point out to Copenhagen representatives that Griffin does not represent the UK people and that Griffin’s attendance is not symptomatic of a concern for the environment but to propound the latest BNP stance that environmentalism somehow represents an ‘anti-white hate guiltfest’.

If you do nothing else in support of Copenhagen, the sight of Griffin jumping on one bandwagon – a ‘global Marxist mantra’ designed to ‘impose a one world government’ indeed – ought to be more than enough to convince you of the need to take a much closer interest in environmental issues henceforward.

Vestas occupation ends

The occupation of the Vestas factory ended at noon today following the serving of an eviction notice yesterday on the six remaining workers inside the factory.

The campaign to Save Vestas goes on.

Aluta continua. Venceremos!

Sacked by pizza delivery

Eleven workers peacefully occupying the Vestas Windsystems wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight in protest at the closure of the plant and the loss of 625 jobs have been sacked by pizza delivery for taking part in industrial action. The sackings – which the workers have lodged appeals against – mean that they will not qualify for redundancy pay.

The pizza was part of a regular food delivery being sent into the workers, who are occupying one floor of the building, by the management of the plant after the decision to put up a chain link fence up to prevent other workers from throwing food up to the workers staging the occupation. It also follows direct discussions between the workers involved and a management representative on Thursday last week – without which the letters could not have been delivered – and when the workers were told of the company’s course of action. The company was in court today to seek to secure a possession order on the factory which will allow it to send bailiffs in to remove the occupying workers. The workers have said that they will leave peacefully if that occurs – but the court’s decision to refuse the possession order on the grounds that the case had not been prepared correctly, with a further hearing now scheduled for next Tuesday, 4 August, is a welcome stay of execution (as well as an interesting demonstration of judicial independence, with the judge being highly critical of the paperwork).

The decision to close the factory was made back in April on the grounds of lack of orders, since which time the company has been engaged in a consultation exercise. Vestas has not commented on the protest but has released a letter justifying its actions.

This is an eye-catching protest, for a number of reasons:

1. The workers involved appear not to be union members, although RMT has provided support and practical assistance. There are a number of points which could be made here about union organising initiatives and the benefits of being in a trade union in this situation, as Johanna Baxter does elsewhere.

2. There is very little tradition of such direct action in the UK, even amongst unionised workers, certainly in contrast to France, where direct action including ‘boss kidnappings’ feature more strongly, as Adrian Askew, General Secretary of Connect, pointed out recently. Back in the 1970s, when union militancy was more widespread, factory sit-ins were more common and there were some legendary examples (UCS) but, apart from the Caterpillar workers’ production of the pink Caterpillar in 1987, more recently they have been almost non-existent. As Gregor Gall argues, perhaps there should be more.

3. Green power ought, in the context most recently of the government’s low carbon plan amidst earlier initiatives on renewable energy, to be a growth area. The plan indicates that 40% of the UK’s energy in the future will come from low carbon sources, including renewables, and joined-up thinking would question the closure of a wind turbine plant in this context at a time when manufacturing jobs are being lost to the recession. Questions do therefore need to be asked as to why Vestas is now closing its wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight. The electoral change in local councils in England and Wales in May may, if Emma Burnell is right about the political divide in terms of approval of wind farm projects, provide some clues as to Vestas’s decision – at least in the UK (the ‘lack of local political action’ was referred to by Vesta directly). The plant supplies products not just for the UK but for the whole of northern Europe – it is a lack of orders right across this part of the continent that has led to the decision to close the plant. And that’s puzzling.

4. The government this week provided £6m in cash to Vestas in support of a new R&D facility on the Isle of Wight – which will support some additional jobs – but this is a separate issue from the closure of the manufacturing plant (and, it would seem, provided to a different Vestas company). R&D is required to deal with some of the typical objections to wind farms – though perhaps not the one that inspired Chris Madden’s very funny cartoon. So, this is good news – albeit with an orientation to the future rather than to the present.

In the meantime, to return to the present, the campaign to Save Vestas goes on, with workers calling on the company in the light of the court’s decision to refuse the possession order now to negotiate with them. That clearly should happen but, in the meantime, the political fight looks as though it needs to be taken to Europe as well as to Westminster.