The agreement has also been helpful beyond reducing home energy use for consumers. By allowing additional energy usage to account for features such as new DOCSIS and Wi-Fi technologies that support higher-capacity services, the agreement enabled signatories to deploy equipment that can handle more capacity than what customers typically need. In contrast to prior regulations based upon then-average download speeds of 30 Mbps —devices would have faltered within days of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, as average broadband rocketed to more than 140 Mbps. Beneficially, the voluntary agreement enabled signatories to support the influx of broadband use without sending new equipment to customer homes.
According to Doug Johnson, vice president of technology policy at CTA, “As so many of us work, learn and stay connected at home via networking devices, this initiative has enabled devices to support features and speeds required by this increased usage. Absent this agreement, regulatory mandates would have made it difficult to upgrade devices and support the broadband levels we’re now relying on.”
The STB agreement has saved consumers a total of $5 billion in energy costs
The recent annual report by independent auditor D+R International, demonstrates the dramatic progress achieved under the agreement. According to the report, 99.8% of SNE devices sold at retail in 2019 met the agreement’s energy efficiency levels, with 100% of signatories
meeting their commitment that 90% of their devices would meet these levels. Notably, these efficiency improvements have been achieved even as consumers demand robust equipment to support higher-speed services, better Wi-Fi strength and more Internet of Things (IoT) devices.The report also found 98.9% of new devices in 2019 already met rigorous “Tier 2” energy levels not scheduled to begin until 2020. Agreement signatories include the major broadband internet service providers: Altice, AT&T, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Frontier and Verizon, as well as leading device manufacturers: Actiontec, ASUS, Belkin/Linksys, CommScope, Plume, Technicolor and Ubee Interactive.The SNE agreement is modeled on the successful, award-winning set-top box energy conservation voluntary agreement. According to that agreement’s most recent report, set-top boxes now use 40% less energy than the models purchased prior to the Voluntary Agreement. Since being signed in 2012, the STB agreement has saved consumers a total of $5 billion in energy costs.
For more information, visit energy-efficiency.us.
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