By Elad Nafshi, Chief Network Officer, Connectivity and Platforms, Comcast
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / June 18, 2026 / Key Takeaways
Reduced electricity per consumed byte by 55 percent since 2019 baseline
AI integration, network upgrades, and modernization led to 15 percent reduction in electricity usage, even as data traffic increased by 89 percent
Connectivity is essential to our lives, whether it's for work, school, or entertainment. Every year, our customers stream more live sports, download larger games, connect more devices over WiFi, and engage with AI-powered applications that depend on fast, reliable, low-latency networks. At Comcast, we're committed to delivering an exceptional connectivity experience, but while we're doing that, we also want to do it in a more sustainable way.
In 2022, we set a goal to double the efficiency of our domestic network by 2030 from our 2019 baseline. Thanks to the innovation and tireless efforts of our incredible team at Comcast, I'm proud to report that we exceeded our goal and achieved it five years ahead of schedule.
The investments we've made to our network enabled us to achieve a 55 percent reduction in electricity per consumed byte (EPCB) from 2019 to 2025. In 2019, our network consumed 18.4 kilowatt-hours of electricity per terabyte of data. In 2025, that number dropped to 8.2 kWh/TB. During this timeframe, we saw an increase of 89 percent more terabytes traveling over our network, which we delivered with 15 percent less electricity usage. That is the power of innovation at scale: delivering dramatically more data, with greater reliability and performance, while using less electricity per byte.
These gains did not happen by accident. They are the result of years of implementing smarter technologies, virtualized infrastructure, operational improvements, and a relentless focus on making our network faster, more reliable, and more efficient.
Modernizing Our Network
We modernized both the physical and digital infrastructure that powers our network, helping us save on electricity. Over the past several years, our teams have worked meticulously to take inventory and optimize hundreds of thousands of network-powering assets. We are tying assets directly to utility bills to better track our footprint and right-sizing gear to maximize efficiency.
Steps we're taking to cut down on power usage also extend to our facilities, which primarily use energy to power and cool network equipment. We transformed the cable modem termination system (CMTS) - the technology that connects customers' modems to our broadband network - into a virtual platform to support customer demand for data while minimizing space and power requirements. Several initiatives to optimize cooling efficiency and effectiveness are being implemented. Smart thermostats allow us to optimize set points and improve remote visibility into our sites to monitor performance during critical events, such as storms. Airflow optimization helps us to eliminate hot spots in our sites while reducing the energy needed to keep sites cool. Each of these efforts may seem incremental on their own, but together at a scale as large as our network, they help us make an impact toward our energy efficiency goals by helping us reduce electricity consumption.
A Smarter, More Sustainable Network
We are also embedding AI and machine learning deeper into the network to help us make better decisions in real time. This enhanced monitoring allows us to identify and address potential issues faster, saving time and reducing truck rolls, which ultimately help us save fuel and reduce emissions. These predictive and self-healing capabilities help us improve the customer experience and increase our network's reliability and resilience, all while supporting our broader sustainability goals - a win-win.
This progress matters because demand is only going to grow. As AI becomes more omnipresent, more live events shift to streaming, and homes and businesses continue to rely on WiFi to power more and more devices, networks will need to be more intelligent, more resilient, and more efficient than ever before.
To meet these demands, Comcast will continue to invest in technologies and operational improvements to improve the speed, reliability, and efficiency of its connectivity. I'm incredibly proud of the Comcast teams who made this milestone possible. They are proving that we can build a network ready for the next generation of customer experiences while continuing to reduce the energy intensity of the data we deliver.
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SOURCE: Comcast
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/comcast-beats-network-energy-efficiency-goal-five-years-early-1179042
