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The sustainability scorecard

About the sustainability scorecard

This sustainability scorecard benchmarks the performance of a selection of companies against seven sustainability-related criteria, and is designed to highlight the areas in which the listed companies are more and less mature in their sustainability strategies. The companies listed includes telcos and small selection of others in adjacent industries (technology, infrastructure).

It supports telcos and their partners to:

  1. Benchmark sustainability performance against competitors
  2. Understand areas of relative strength
  3. Highlight areas that require greater focus in order to guide future sustainability strategies
Download the excel scorecard
Download the accompanying PPT report

Our list of companies are scored against seven sustainability criteria including:

1. Structured sustainability reporting. Whether the company has history of publishing sustainability reports over a period of time shows a sustained commitment to sustainability.
2. Sustainability commitments and incentives. Evidence of board level incentives tied to ESG targets demonstrates that the organisation sees achieving sustainability targets as core to its long term competitiveness.
3. Public reporting on scope 1, 2 and 3 with associated emission reduction targets.
4. Green finance. This includes the issuing of green bonds or sustainability linked bonds.
5. External recognition of social initiatives to highlight the full spectrum of ESG initiatives.
6. Commitment to biodiversity.
7. Enablement. Companies that are committed to enabling their customers to reduce their carbon footprint will have concerted initiatives that are delivering measurable benefits.

Companies included in the scorecard

1. Telefónica
2. Verizon
3. Proximus
4. KPN
5. SK Telecom
6. Amazon
7. Apple
8. Vodafone
9. Deutsche Telekom
10. Swisscom
11. Google
12. TELUS
13. Elisa
14. Sony
15. Softbank
16. KDDI
17. Orange
18. AT&T
19. BT
20. Meta
21. Microsoft
22. Telia
23. Millicom
24. Bell
25. Singtel
26. MTN
27. America Movil
28. Telenor
29. Cellnex
30. Saudi Telecom Company
31. T Mobile
32. China Mobile
33. Telkom Indonesia
34. Telstra
35. Rogers
36. Netflix
37. Tata Communications
38. Globe
39. China Telecom
40. Bharti Airtel
41. American Tower Corporation
42. Veon
43. MTS
44. Jio
45. Digicel

Read more about sustainability

Article

Pitfalls of emissions enablement

Telecoms operators provide enabling technology to help their customers reduce carbon emissions. However, exaggerating claims of enablement may have adverse consequences. This article explores how telecoms operators should approach these claims.

Read more

Webinar

5G’s role in reducing carbon emissions – over 1.6B tonnes by 2030t

In this webinar STL Partners demonstrates which 5G use cases play the biggest role in reducing emissions and how the ecosystem must work together

Read more

Research

Telco roadmap to net-zero carbon emissions: Why, when and how

Based on discussions with 40 service providers (SPs) this report explores the challenges, priorities, strategies and best practices they identified around reducing carbon emissions.

Read more

Intro to the sustainability scorecard

About the sustainability scorecard

This sustainability scorecard benchmarks the performance of a selection of companies against seven sustainability-related criteria, and is designed to highlight the areas in which the listed companies are more and less mature in their sustainability strategies. The companies listed includes telcos and small selection of others in adjacent industries (technology, infrastructure).

It supports telcos and their partners to:

  1. Benchmark sustainability performance against competitors
  2. Understand areas of relative strength
  3. Highlight areas that require greater focus in order to guide future sustainability strategies
Download the scorecard results summary

Our list of companies are scored against seven sustainability criteria including:

1. Structured sustainability reporting. Whether the company has history of publishing sustainability reports over a period of time shows a sustained commitment to sustainability.
2. Sustainability commitments and incentives. Evidence of board level incentives tied to ESG targets demonstrates that the organisation sees achieving sustainability targets as core to its long term competitiveness.
3. Public reporting on scope 1, 2 and 3 with associated emission reduction targets.
4. Green finance. This includes the issuing of green bonds or sustainability linked bonds.
5. External recognition of social initiatives to highlight the full spectrum of ESG initiatives.
6. Commitment to biodiversity.
7. Enablement. Companies that are committed to enabling their customers to reduce their carbon footprint will have concerted initiatives that are delivering measurable benefits.

The sustainability scorecard builds on STL’s ongoing sustainability research.

Read more about sustainability

Article

Pitfalls of emissions enablement

Telecoms operators provide enabling technology to help their customers reduce carbon emissions. However, exaggerating claims of enablement may have adverse consequences. This article explores how telecoms operators should approach these claims.

Read more

Webinar

5G’s role in reducing carbon emissions – over 1.6B tonnes by 2030t

In this webinar STL Partners demonstrates which 5G use cases play the biggest role in reducing emissions and how the ecosystem must work together

Read more

Research

Telco roadmap to net-zero carbon emissions: Why, when and how

Based on discussions with 40 service providers (SPs) this report explores the challenges, priorities, strategies and best practices they identified around reducing carbon emissions.

Read more

Trial telco cloud deployment tracker

About the Telco Cloud Deployment Tracker

The Telco Cloud Deployment Tracker is our comprehensive database of live, commercial deployments of virtualised and cloud native network functions (VNFs and CNFs) and SDN technologies by leading telcos worldwide. It builds on an extensive body of analysis by STL Partners over the past eight years on NFV and SDN strategies, technology and market developments. The Tracker is provided as an interactive tool containing line-by-line analysis of over 900 individual deployments of VNFs, CNFs or SDN technology, which can be used to drill down by: • Region where deployed • Operator • Technology vendor • Primary purpose • Category of NFV/SDN technology deployed • …and more filters Below is a limited trial version of the tracker that allows you to look at the overall trend of deployments over time, the breakdown of deployments by primary purpose and how each category changes on a yearly basis. You can also select and filter by primary purpose using the dropdown menu on the right.

To access the full version of our interactive Telco Cloud Deployment Tracker, click the button below

Trial Version

Our accompanying analytical reports

We also publish accompanying analytical reports with each release and update of our Telco Cloud Deployment Tracker. Each report focuses on trends in specific regions or domain areas, in addition to global findings.

Our data

The data is drawn predominantly from public-domain information contained in news releases from operators and vendors, along with reputable industry media. In addition to these mainly public-domain deployments, there are many non-publicised deployments that are inevitably omitted from the Tracker. However, the ever-growing ‘Tracker’ database now constitutes a considerable body of research that offers a reliable snapshot of the overall market and the main trends in the evolution of telco cloud. As the Tracker contains details only of deployments in live, commercial telco networks (either completed or in progress), this provides a useful corrective to the hype of some vendors’ pronouncements about agreements with operators, which often relate only to collaboration arrangements and preliminary trials, rather than commercial roll-outs. The one exception to this rule is a limited set of data on some of the current live network trials of open and / or virtual RAN (vRAN). The reason for making this exception is the very high level of interest currently in open RAN.

More information on the scope and content

Here, the term ‘deployment’ to refer to the total set of virtual network functions (VNFs), CNFs or SDN technology, and their associated management software and infrastructure, deployed at an operator – or at one or more of an operator’s opcos or natcos – in order to achieve a defined objective or support particular services (we designate these as the ‘primary purpose’ of the deployment). For example, this could be: • to implement a virtualised mobile core • to launch a software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) service • or to construct a ‘telco cloud’ or NFV infrastructure (NFVi): a cloud infrastructure platform on which virtualised network services can be introduced and operated. In terms of the telcos included, we limit the database mainly to Tier-1 international and national telecoms operators, along with national fixed and mobile operators in smaller markets. For subsequent updates, we may expand the range and types of service providers included, because telco cloud is opening up opportunities for new players to provide cloud- and CNF-based connectivity and related services that are competing strongly with classic telco services.

Telco Cloud Deployment Tracker

The following dashboards showcase the most up-to-date insights from STL Partners’ Telco Cloud Deployment Tracker. Our tool is interactive and contains different high-level analysis and underlying data of what operators have done (and plan to do) globally in telco cloud. In-depth analysis can be found in our accompanying reports.

Any deployments with ‘Null’ as the deployment year below are ‘In progress’ or ‘Pending’ deployments. See explanatory notes and definitions at the bottom of the page.

Summary of total deployments Deployments by operator Deployments by vendor

Summary of total deployments

Deployments by operator

Deployments by vendor

 

We would love to have a discussion with you to understand your perspectives on everything telco cloud. If you would like to speak to our team to hear more insights, please use the button below.

Book a call with an analyst Read our analytical reports Download the detailed dataset

Definitions and explanatory notes

Deployments and deployment numbers

  • We define as a ‘deployment’ the implementation of a given VNF and any named sub-components, or of a whole NFV or SDN solution including several explicitly referenced VNFs and components.
  • A deployment can also be the roll-out of a VNF and supporting infrastructure across multiple subsidiaries of an operator group, which are counted as a single deployment, even though there are multiple instances of it.
  • In our dashboards, we show both the deployments and all of the components involved, including information on the vendor and vendor solutions where known.
  • In our ‘Detailed dataset’ worksheet, we have numbered the deployments from 1 to 748 to make this distinction between deployments and deployed components clearer. The numbering is determined by alphabetical order of region where the operator is based, and then by operator names and chronological order of deployments.

Dates

  • Dates are presented in the form ‘Jan-20, ‘Feb-20’, etc. Dates showing the month of December (e.g. Dec-19) mean ‘by the end of 2019’, unless we have added a comment stating explicitly that the month of December of that year was the deployment / go-live date. In all other cases, where we have shown a December date, this means that the precise date / month of the deployment is not known, but we have information or are confident that the deployment went live by the end of that year.

Operator names

  • The names of operators – shown in the dashboards and column C of the ‘Detailed dataset’ worksheet – are those of the operator group parent company, where applicable. If the local operating subsidiary carrying out the deployment has a different name from the parent company, this is shown in column H in the worksheet.

Country where operator based vs country where deployment is carried out

  • In our dashboards, a deployment is assigned to a given region (e.g. Asia-Pacific (APAC)) if it occurred in that region or if it was carried out on a global basis by a telco based in that region. Consequently, the total deployments for Asia-Pacific also include those carried out by or at local subsidiaries of telco groups based outside Asia-Pacific.
  • In column D of the ‘Detailed dataset’ worksheet, we show the country where the operator or operator group is based. If the country where the deployment has taken place differs from the location of the company’s head office or domestic market, we show the country where the deployment was carried out in column F.

Non-complete deployments

  • Deployments that have not yet been completed, or not been announced as completed, we categorise as either ‘in progress’, ‘planned’ or ‘retired’ (these are marked as ‘Null’ in our dashboards on the ‘Year implemented’).
  • ‘In progress’ means that the deployment is ongoing; ‘planned’ means the deployment was announced but we are not sure how far it has progressed; and ‘retired’ means that the deployment was completed and went live, but the solution has now been taken out of commercial operation.
  • We continue to show retired deployments for the purposes of historical trends analysis.

Our regional key:

APAC: Asia Pacific (including Central and Southern Asia)
EUR: Europe
NAM: North America (including the Caribbean)
ME: Middle East
LAM: Latin America (including Central America)
AF: Africa

Intro to the net-zero enablement use case directory

About the Telecoms Net Zero Enablement Use Case Directory

This telecoms net-zero enablement use case directory highlights a selection of sustainability use cases that telcos could offer to their customers to enable them to reach net zero. Each use case has one or more related case studies of companies (including, but not limited to, telcos) which highlight examples of the use case in practice.

It supports telcos and their partners to:

  1. Accelerate sustainability strategy through exploring a range of real world case studies that are driving solutions across different industries and for consumers.
  2. Drive alignment within the organisation on the proposition and requirements of use cases.
  3. Highlight the monetisation opportunities and roles that need to be filled in order to deliver a sustainability solution.
Request an extract of use case directory

Our list of use cases and case studies provide detailed insights and analysis

Each use case features the following:

  • How it works
  • How the use case enables net zero
  • Potential ecosystem partners
  • The telco business benefit (e.g. connectivity revenue, access to green finance)
  • The telco capabilities involved in the use case (e.g. 4G, 5G, edge, systems integration)
  • Whether the use case has a direct impact (clearly articulated link to sustainability in proposition) or an indirect impact (sustainability is currently a by-product)
  • The applicable business model (e.g. B2B, B2C, B2B2X)

Each case study highlights:

  • A specific example of a telco or other company offering a sustainability use case
  • An overview of how the case study works
  • STL Partners’ SWOT analysis
  • Key solution partners
  • Indication of solution maturity
  • Traditional business model vs sustainability opportunity

Sample sustainability use case

Sample sustainability case study

The use case directory builds on STL’s ongoing sustainability research

See our previous research, consulting, webinars and participation in industry forums:

Read more about sustainability

Article

Pitfalls of emissions enablement

Telecoms operators provide enabling technology to help their customers reduce carbon emissions. However, exaggerating claims of enablement may have adverse consequences. This article explores how telecoms operators should approach these claims.

Read more

Webinar

5G’s role in reducing carbon emissions – over 1.6B tonnes by 2030t

In this webinar STL Partners demonstrates which 5G use cases play the biggest role in reducing emissions and how the ecosystem must work together

Read more

Research

Telco roadmap to net-zero carbon emissions: Why, when and how

Based on discussions with 40 service providers (SPs) this report explores the challenges, priorities, strategies and best practices they identified around reducing carbon emissions.

Read more

The net-zero enablement use case directory

About the Telecoms Net Zero Enablement Use Case Directory

This telecoms net-zero enablement use case directory highlights a selection of sustainability use cases that telcos could offer to their customers to enable them to reach net zero. Each use case has one or more related case studies of companies (including, but not limited to, telcos) which highlight examples of the use case in practice.

It supports telcos and their partners to:

  1. Accelerate sustainability strategy through exploring a range of real world case studies that are driving solutions across different industries and for consumers.
  2. Drive alignment within the organisation on the proposition and requirements of use cases.
  3. Highlight the monetisation opportunities and roles that need to be filled in order to deliver a sustainability solution.

To download the PDF version of our Telecoms Net Zero Enablement Use Case Directory, click the button below

Download the Telecoms Net Zero Enablement Use Case Directory

Our list of use cases and case studies provide detailed insights and analysis

Each use case features the following:

  • How it works
  • How the use case enables net zero
  • Potential ecosystem partners
  • The telco business benefit (e.g. connectivity revenue, access to green finance)
  • The telco capabilities involved in the use case (e.g. 4G, 5G, edge, systems integration)
  • Whether the use case has a direct impact (clearly articulated link to sustainability in proposition) or an indirect impact (sustainability is currently a by-product)
  • The applicable business model (e.g. B2B, B2C, B2B2X)

Each case study highlights:

  • A specific example of a telco or other company offering a sustainability use case
  • An overview of how the case study works
  • STL Partners’ SWOT analysis
  • Key solution partners
  • Indication of solution maturity

Read more about sustainability

Article

Pitfalls of emissions enablement

Telecoms operators provide enabling technology to help their customers reduce carbon emissions. However, exaggerating claims of enablement may have adverse consequences. This article explores how telecoms operators should approach these claims.

Read more

Webinar

5G’s role in reducing carbon emissions – over 1.6B tonnes by 2030t

In this webinar STL Partners demonstrates which 5G use cases play the biggest role in reducing emissions and how the ecosystem must work together

Read more

Research

Telco roadmap to net-zero carbon emissions: Why, when and how

Based on discussions with 40 service providers (SPs) this report explores the challenges, priorities, strategies and best practices they identified around reducing carbon emissions.

Read more

Edge Capacity Forecast

Introducing STL Partners’ telco network edge forecast

This dashboard presents the key findings of STL Partners’ telco network edge capacity forecast. Its purpose is to provide answers to key questions such as:

  • How many edge data centres will telcos build and make available for consumer/enterprise applications?
  • How much capacity of telco edge computing will there be globally?
  • How much of telco edge computing will be used for distributed core network functions vs. consumer/enterprise applications?
  • What proportion of telco edge data centre capacity will be taken up by hyperscalers’ platforms?

The dashboard presents a summary of our model output and the associated graphics for the world’s regions and the data for 55 of the leading telecoms operators.

View PDF
View accompanying spreadsheet

Network edge capacity is forecast to build slowly reach an inflection point in 2023

High-level findings from the model indicate that:

  • There will be about 1,500 network edge sites by 2025: We will not see tens of thousands of network edge sites any time soon. In fact, most telecoms operators have been deploying 2-3 edge data centres in their first year, with some exceptions in the U.S (e.g. Cox and Verizon, who already have over 10 sites in the country). The model forecasts there will be an inflection point in 2023 when more telcos will have deployed 5G (standalone core) and the early majority starts to launch their edges.
  • Most edge locations will be at the transport aggregation layer: Telcos are still proving the model and are starting with deploying a relatively small number of edge data centres in the transport aggregation layer, between the core and access network. This is often referred to as the “near edge”. Building a highly distributed system of edge nodes in the access network will require significant investment, which most telcos will wait to make once there is significant demand for ultra-low latency applications.
Edge Computing Market Sizing Tool

Source: STL Partners

Segments

  • Type of workload
    • Core network functions
    • Edge applications
  • Site
    • Access site
    • Access aggregation
    • Transport aggregation
  • Edge server owner
    • Telecoms operator
    • Hyperscaler
  • Primary network type
    • 4G
    • 5G
    • Fixed (cable, fibre, copper)
  • Edge strategy
    • Connectivity queen
    • Help me buddy
    • Wholesale house
    • Love me some edge
  • Region
    • Europe & Central Asia
    • East Asia & Pacific
    • Latin America & Caribbean
    • Middle East & North Africa
    • North America
    • South Asia
    • Sub-Saharan Africa

Edge Computing Market Sizing Dashboard

Introducing STL Partners’ edge computing market sizing forecast

This dashboard presents the key findings of STL Partners’ demand forecast model for edge computing services. Its purpose is to:

  • Assess the demand from 20 use cases which currently rely on edge or will require edge to fully develop;
  • Identify the total revenue across the value chain: hardware, connectivity, application, edge infrastructure (network and on-premise), and integration and support;
  • Output a full set of results for over 180 countries over the 2020–2030 period per use case and per vertical.

The dashboard presents a summary of our model output and the associated graphics for the world’s regions and for 20 major markets. The dashboard also presents the full revenue output for the 180+ countries.

View PDF
View accompanying spreadsheet

Edge computing addressable revenue will reach US$543 billion by 2030

High-level findings from the model indicate that:

  • The growth in the number of connected devices, as well as the need for higher levels of automation, operational efficiency and cost reduction, will drive the adoption of edge computing across many use cases and verticals over the next 10 years. This will result in increased spend across the value chain.
  • The total edge computing addressable market will grow from US$10 billion in 2020 to US$543 billion in 2030 at a CAGR of 49% over the 10-year period.
  • The total value chain breaks into five main components which are hardware, connectivity, application, integration & support, in addition to the edge infrastructure which includes both on-prem edge and network edge.

Total edge computing addressable revenue

Edge Computing Market Sizing Tool

Source: STL Partners

Segments

  • Revenue by value chain component
    • Hardware
    • Connectivity
    • Edge infrastructure (on-prem)
    • Edge infrastructure (network)
    • Application
    • Integration and support
  • Revenue by use case
    • Advanced predictive maintenance
    • AR/VR for training
    • Automated guided vehicles
    • Cloud gaming
    • Connected car driver assistance
    • Contextual DOOH advertising
    • Drone inspection and navigation
    • Edge ADN
    • Edge CDN
    • Flow analysis – video ingest and analysis
    • In-hospital patient monitoring
    • Live video/broadcast
    • MR for worker safety and productivity
    • Production & maintenance – video ingest and analysis
    • Real-time collaboration in design and engineering
    • Real-time precision monitoring and control
    • Remote monitoring and care
    • Security – video ingest and analysis
    • Smart city traffic management
    • Temporary compute for events
  • Revenue by vertical
    • Agriculture
    • Architecture, engineering & construction
    • Defence
    • Emergency services
    • Extractive industries
    • Financial
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Logistics
    • Manufacturing
    • Media & Entertainment
    • Professional services
    • Retail
    • Tourism, hospitality & events
    • Transport
    • Utilities
  • Revenue by region
    • East Asia & Pacific
    • Europe & Central Asia
    • Latin America & Caribbean
    • Middle East & North Africa
    • North America
    • South Asia
    • Sub-Saharan Africa

 

Edge Computing Ecosystem Tool

What is the edge computing ecosystem tool?

Many of our clients have been asking us who are going to the be their partners, suppliers and competitors in the edge computing ecosystem. In reality, this will depend on which part of the value chain a particular organisation chooses to play in, as well as “which edge” we are talking about: network/multi-access edge, on-premises/enterprise edge, etc.

To help answer this question, we have created an interactive tool that maps out where different companies are positioned across the ecosystem.

Download the spreadsheet

Edge Computing Use Case Directory

Discover the best edge monetisation opportunities, understand the key partners, and inform your go-to-market strategy through our Edge Use Case Service

  1. Accelerate your edge computing strategy through education of the key use cases that are driving adoption in different industries.
  2. Drive alignment within your organisation on the proposition and requirements of use cases.
  3. Highlight the monetisation opportunities and roles that need to be filled in order to deliver an end-to-end edge computing solution. 
View PDF
View accompanying spreadsheet

The Edge Use Case Service includes over 50 use cases and provides detailed insight and analysis, including:

  • Use case description
  • Key drivers for using edge computing
  • Potential business models
  • Real-life examples
  • Potential partners
  • Customer and end-user proposition

Table of Contents

  • Advanced predictive maintenance
  • AR in travel/tourism
  • AR/VR gaming and simulation
  • Automated guided vehicles
  • Automated platooning for truck convoys
  • Branch office compute
  • Building monitoring / alarm systems
  • Cloud gaming
  • Condition-based monitoring
  • Connected ambulance
  • Contextual DOOH advertising
  • Drone detection
  • Drone navigation
  • Edge ADN & web content optimisation
  • Edge CDN
  • Electronic health data
  • Environmental condition monitoring
  • Fleet management
  • Flow analysis – video ingest and analytics
  • Immersive experience
  • Infotainment on transport
  • In-hospital patient monitoring
  • IoT analytics for building management
  • Live video/broadcast
  • MR for worker safety and productivity
  • Network-enabled location based services
  • Object and vehicle tracking
  • Personalised energy consumption analysis
  • Precision agriculture
  • Private mobile network
  • Production and maintenance – video ingest and analytics
  • Real-time collaboration in design and engineering
  • Real-time inventory management
  • Real-time precision monitoring and control
  • Real-time UAV asset/site inspection
  • Remote monitoring and care
  • Security – video ingest and analytics
  • Smart city traffic management
  • Smart microgrid management
  • SME network services
  • Temporary compute/events
  • Virtual PC/DaaS/VDI
  • VR/AR for training