In LTE (which is the current technology), to supply a 20 W antenna output on a Macro eNodeB you need approximately 150 W at the wave guide (feeder) entrance. That includes feeder loss and efficiency. You need another 50 W for the electronics to prepare the signal for transmission. Add cooling, heating (yes, in nordic countries that is needed), power supply efficiency which leaves you anywhere between 250 W and 500 W per TRX chain, depending on environmental conditions etc.

A typical LTE site today would have 3 sectors, 2x2 MIMO and 2 carriers (20 MHz frequency bands) which makes a total of 3x2x2=12 TRX chains.

So eventually you arrive at 3 kW to 6 kW of power consumption (at the site connection).

This is for a so-called Macro Base Station in a developed country. If you go to rural areas in Africa, you want to add Diesel generator efficiency, long power feed lines, and all that.

For a fair assessment you want to include the following (as a share per site):

• electric power line loss (there is often remote power feed), in particular at rural sites
• Power consumption of transport network equipment (which could be broadband microwave , copper or fibre)

So an assessment of 4–6 kW per site with an average of 5 would be ok.

Across the industry you do hear benchmark figures like 0.4 kW per square kilometer of covered area, in line with the deduction above.

Towards 5G a lot of energy saving initiatives are under way. With an expected 1000x increase of data capacity 5G radio networks at current energy efficiency will be a threat to carbon footprint of each country where it is deployed. The main technologies include: Remote Radio Heads (no feeder loss), dense deployment of low power consumption “Small Cells” indoor and at outdoor hot spots, increase of radio efficiency.