The Greening of Xohm

What holds Sprint back from becoming more aggressive, Dill said, are the limitations of the existing wireless ecosystem and the financial constraints of a highly competitive market. While Sprint is working with the EPA and other environmental groups to build more infrastructure and awareness around technology such as fuel cells, it is still working primarily with contractors unequipped to deliver anything besides diesel fuel and replacement batteries to cell sites. And even if that infrastructure were in place, the cost of putting fuel cells into tens of thousands of base stations is enormous — something that can't be done overnight.

“The main thing we're challenged with is that most renewable energy technologies have a healthy pay-back period,” Dill said. “They're expensive to implement as it is, and they take a long time to pay dividends.”