The telecom industry is undergoing a quiet revolution – one that is as much about financial efficiency as it is about sustainability. Over the past few years, operators around the world have been increasingly looking to the circular economy, not just to meet green targets but to support their overall business objectives.
Instead of treating legacy equipment as scrap, they’ve been focused on finding ways to refurbish, reuse, recycle, and resell network hardware. The net result? Significant cost recovery, financial savings through reduced operational expenditure, net-new revenue streams, and a smaller environmental footprint.
Two roads to circularity
Operators have historically entered the circular economy for one of two reasons: either to sell equipment as they modernize networks or to buy pre-owned components to extend the life of their existing infrastructure.
Over time, these approaches have started to overlap, taking what has traditionally been a semi-circular approach closer to forming a true closed-loop circular economy system.
Now, network operators are starting to truly maximize every resource before it no longer serves their technology requirements.
Network rationalization: Turning old assets into new money
With each passing year, the OEMs continue to push the boundaries of innovation, delivering network equipment that is more efficient, more capable, and provides better performance.
This is one of the reasons why many operators, including Openreach, are undergoing major restructuring efforts – decommissioning and deinstalling outdated infrastructure and switching to fiber which not only promises better performance but also better efficiency, lower operating costs, and a cleaner environmental footprint.
The big opportunity here? The resale of decommissioned materials. According to our own forecasts, telecoms groups such as Telstra, who has made over £105m ($211m) in two years, are expected to make over $10 billion from selling recycled copper over the next 15 years.
As the price of commodities like copper (which runs abundant in legacy networks) increases, the process doesn’t just offset the costs of decommissioning/deinstallation, it can also provide significant funding for infrastructure build. Instead of treating old assets as a burden, operators are learning to see them as hidden treasures.
Sweating the assets: getting more from what you have
Concurrently, operators are also getting smarter about how they buy. The pandemic was a wake-up call when supply chain issues forced companies to look beyond the traditional infrastructure procurement route. Now, many are actively choosing the second-user market, not just as a stopgap but as a long-term strategy alongside net-new technologies.
Sourcing second-use equipment allows operators to keep legacy networks running longer, repair rather than replace, and reduce their Scope 3 emissions.
This is especially critical during long-term transitions like the sunsetting of 3G and 2G networks, where second-user hardware helps maintain critical services while new infrastructure is rolled out. Companies like Telia and Telenor have already embraced this model, using refurbished hardware to support their networks where support for older-generation technology is limited.
Joanna Hutchinson-Parker is the Managing Director for UK & APAC at TXO, a leading provider of critical telecom network hardware and asset management services.
