(Telecompaper) ISPs, equipment suppliers and retail equipment manufacturers have joined the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) to announce a new voluntary agreement to improve the energy efficiency of internet modems, routers and other equipment that deliver broadband to millions of consumers in the US. The agreement sets requirements to improve the energy efficiency of small network equipment (SNE) by 10 to 20 percent compared to typical, recently-deployed devices and cover more than 90 percent of US broadband households, roughly 80 million homes, by 2017. The voluntary SNE agreement's signatories to date include service providers AT&T, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, CenturyLink, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Verizon, and manufacturers Actiontec, Arris, Cisco, D-Link, EchoStar Technologies, Netgear, Pace and Ubee Interactive.