Europe's Broadband Goes Green, Slashing Energy Use by 1.3 TWh Annually

FREMONT, CA – January 19, 2026 – A quiet but powerful revolution is underway in homes across Europe, targeting the unsleeping sentinels of our digital lives: broadband routers, modems, and set-top boxes. New industry-wide standards are set to enable these devices to enter intelligent, energy-saving standby modes, a move projected to save a staggering 1.3 Terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity each year, according to the global standards organization Broadband Forum.

This colossal energy saving—equivalent to the annual residential power needs of a mid-size European capital like Lisbon, Copenhagen, or Athens—highlights a significant shift in the tech industry's approach to sustainability. The saved power could alternatively be used to run approximately seventy new small data centers, illustrating the scale of the initiative. The move comes as both consumers and regulators demand greater accountability for the growing energy footprint of our hyper-connected world.

“As connected homes grow increasingly sophisticated, energy efficiency is becoming a defining design consideration for broadband equipment,” said SoftAtHome Chief HGW Standardization Architect David Cluytens in a recent announcement. He noted that the new standards reflect a “collective global industry effort to align broadband technologies with sustainability objectives,” citing policies like the French Energy Transition Law for Green Growth.

The Technical Heart of Green Broadband

The engine driving this change is a series of extensions to the Broadband Forum's TR-181 Issue 2 Amendment 20 Data Model. While the name is a technical mouthful, its function is transformative. This data model, when implemented over a network using the User Services Platform (USP/TR-369) protocol, creates a universal language for managing and monitoring the power consumption of home networking equipment, regardless of the manufacturer.

This standardization allows broadband service providers (BSPs) to remotely manage the power states of millions of devices. The update introduces several granular power-saving features, including:

• Dynamic Wi-Fi Control: The ability to dynamically reduce the number of active Wi-Fi transmit and receive antennas during periods of low usage, or even schedule Wi-Fi radios to turn off completely during sleeping hours.
• Ethernet Energy Detect Power Down (EDPD): This allows wired Ethernet ports to enter a low-power state when no device is connected or the connected device is off.
• CPU Frequency Scaling: The device's processor can automatically slow down when it isn't performing intensive tasks, significantly cutting down on its power draw.
• LED Brightness Management: Even the small indicator lights on a router can be dimmed or turned off to save energy.

Crucially, the update enables remote monitoring of power consumption for individual hardware components. This gives service providers unprecedented visibility into network energy usage and allows them to deploy power-saving policies as containerized software solutions across a diverse range of hardware. This interoperability is key to achieving widespread adoption and maximizing the potential energy savings.

“The latest power saving efforts highlight how the Broadband Forum’s members continue to look for ways to improve economic and environmental sustainability for the industry,” stated Broadband Forum CEO Craig Thomas. “The TR-181 update represents a huge step forward for hitting sustainability targets in the years ahead.”

A Ripple Effect Across Industry and Policy

The push for greener broadband is not happening in a vacuum. It is a direct response to a confluence of regulatory pressure, economic incentives, and a growing market for sustainable technology. In Europe, where digital infrastructure accounts for a significant and growing portion of electricity consumption—telecom networks alone used an estimated 25-30 TWh in 2022—energy efficiency has become a top priority.

Initiatives like the European Green Deal and national laws are compelling companies to reduce their carbon footprint. The Broadband Forum's standard provides a clear, deployable pathway for service providers and equipment vendors to meet these requirements. The initial drive for these standards came from industry heavyweights including BT Group, Orange, Calix, and Nokia, signaling strong market readiness and commitment.

For broadband providers, the economic case is compelling. Reduced energy consumption across millions of customer devices translates directly into lower operational costs. As demonstrated by Orange, which estimated it could save 64 GWh annually in France just by turning off the 5GHz Wi-Fi radio for 10 hours a day, the savings for a single operator can be substantial.

The Consumer and Environmental Payoff

Beyond the corporate and regulatory landscape, the ultimate beneficiaries of this green shift are consumers and the environment. The projected 1.3 TWh saving is based on forecasts for 200 million internet-connected households in the EU. As these standards are adopted, families can expect to see a modest but measurable reduction in their electricity bills—a welcome relief in a time of volatile energy prices.

More broadly, this initiative serves as a powerful example of how technical standards can be a force for positive environmental change. The seemingly minor act of putting a home router into a 'deep sleep' mode, when multiplied by millions, contributes significantly to reducing a nation's overall energy demand and carbon emissions.

By embedding sustainability directly into the technical fabric of the internet, the Broadband Forum and its members are not just creating more efficient devices; they are building a more responsible and sustainable digital future. This proactive, standards-based approach may well become a blueprint for other sectors of the technology industry grappling with the challenge of balancing innovation with environmental stewardship.