NCTA-The Internet & Television Association said that 98% of modems, routers and other residential broadband equipment sold in the U.S. in 2016 met energy efficiency standards, up from 89% the year before.
The goal was at least 90% of the equipment sold after Jan. 1, 2016, would be compliant.
Ten of the 11 signatories reporting met the 90% threshold, with one unidentified member falling just short at 88%, but with plans for remediation to hit the mark. Five of the reporting companies had a perfect 100% compliance.
NCTA was a leading participant—along with the Consumer Technology Association—in a voluntary agreement to improve the energy efficiency of such equipment.
According to a new independent audit, said NCTA, there was between a 17% and 34% decrease in the average energy use in "idle" mode for the three categories of the "small network equipment" to which the agreement applies. There is a similar energy-savings agreement for set-tops.
ISP signatories are AT&T/DirecTV, Cablevision, CenturyLink, Charter/Time Warner Cable/Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox Communications, and Verizon; tech companies are Actiontec, Arris/Pace, D-Link, EchoStar Technologies, NetGear, Technicolor, and Ubee Interactive.
The agreement expires next year but NCTA said the parties are working toward renewing the agreement.
"The Voluntary Agreement is off to a promising start in improving the energy efficiency of small network equipment used by American consumers with broadband internet access service," independent auditor D+R International concluded.
(Photo via Luckey Sun's Flickr. Image taken on April 21, 2017 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 16x9 aspect ratio.)
