Life cycle inventory and carbon footprint assessment of wireless ICT networks for six demographic areas

•Environmental sustainability of 4 G LTE networks has been studied considering operational and embodied carbon footprint.•Carbon footprints ranged between 81 and 103 kg CO2 eq./subscription/year, equivalent to 1.35–1.73 kg CO2 eq./Gb.•Carbon emissions per subscriber (or Gb) are higher in networks covering sparsely populated areas.•Embodied emissions from end user devices (mobile and smart phones) are by far the most significant contributors in all scenarios.•Emissions from the energy consumed to operate end user devices and access networks is also significant.