Broadband and Utility Leaders Unite to Boost Energy Efficiency of Home Internet Devices

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA)^®, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association (NCTA), Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), broadband internet service providers, and device manufacturers today announce an extension of the award-winning “Voluntary Agreement” to improve the energy efficiency of home internet equipment such as modems, routers and Wi-Fi extenders through 2028. 

The agreement features more rigorous efficiency levels that will improve the energy efficiency of new devices by an additional estimated average of 10% starting in 2026. The core commitment pledges at least 90% of all new devices purchased by each service provider or sold by each manufacturer at retail each year will meet efficiency levels established in the agreement.  

An independent report of the more than 400 different home internet device models covered by the agreement found that: 

• 98.6% of equipment purchased or sold by the signatories in 2023 met the efficiency levels of the agreement, and 
• Since 2015, the energy efficiency of new home Internet devices has improved by 89% relative to broadband speeds.  

“This voluntary agreement promotes significant energy efficiency improvements and encourages innovation, a win-win for consumers and the planet,” said Ally Peck, senior manager of environmental policy and sustainability, CTA.  

“The voluntary agreement has been instrumental in keeping energy efficiency of home internet equipment at the forefront of standards, development, and design, and will be even more important going forward to keep pace with the ever-evolving demands for our devices to efficiently deliver more data, higher speeds, lower latency, increased security and reliability,” said Debbie Fitzgerald, distinguished technologist and director at CableLabs. 

Signatories of the voluntary agreement include: 

• U.S. broadband internet service providers Altice USA, AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Frontier, and Verizon, which collectively represent approximately 85% of the U.S. wireline internet access market. 
• Actiontec, ASUS, eero, Google, Linksys, Netgear, Plume, Sagemcom, TP-Link, Vantiva, and Ubee Interactive, which manufacture home Internet devices used in the U.S.  
• PG&E, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, joined the program in 2022 as an “energy efficiency advocate” to assure the rigor of its commitments and validate its progress.  

CTA, NCTA, and CableLabs provide coordination and support for the agreement. 

Learn more about the voluntary agreement and the industry’s energy efficiency efforts at energy-efficiency.us.