Competition and reduced margins have pushed Latin American MNOs and towercos to pursue operational excellence in a region where security has become an essential aspect of telecom infrastructure management. Having the right access control system in place is allowing many companies to secure and control their assets efficiently and has better positioned many regional players to face Covid-19, which expansion is forcing the industry to operate remotely. TowerXchange spoke with ABLOY’s Latin American Director Alejandro Valderrama to hear about the company’s new solutions, its 5G strategy and how is supporting its clients to face the challenges that Coronavirus is creating for the industry.
TowerXchange: Could you please re-introduce ABLOY to our readers and share your experience across Central and Latin America.
Alejandro Valderrama, Regional Director, Latin America, ABLOY Critical Infrastructure:
ABLOY is a Finnish company with more than 110 years in the market. Combining digital and mechanical expertise, we secure critical infrastructure with the most advanced locking and access control systems. In Latin America, we have two competence centres in Mexico and Colombia as well as a representative office in Brazil. We have extensive experience in the region’s telecom infrastructure industry and work closely with both towercos and MNOs, with over 14 distributors across almost every Latin American country. Abloy is part of the ASSA ABLOY Group, the global leader in access solutions with an US$8.2bn-yearly revenue in 2019.
TowerXchange: Who are your main clients and how does demand vary between MNOs and towercos?
Alejandro Valderrama, Regional Director, Latin America, ABLOY Critical Infrastructure:
Traditionally, our main customers across Latin America have been MNOs but recently towercos have also started to implement our solutions. Our clients needs depend on the type of assets that they are trying to secure, as the requirements and equipment demands vary from a tower site to an optical fibre network or a data centre. However, the ultimate goals are the same for towercos and MNOs in wanting to achieve operational efficiency with high security, and ABLOY solutions guarantee both.
We provide tailored solutions that are developed for each individual client. In Colombia, for instance, one of our MNO clients offers its television services through an optic fibre network. They install small signal amplifiers on light poles to generate nodes and the devices are stolen all the time, as they are very easy to resell on the black market. As a solution we produced and installed customised cages to protect the amplifiers with mechatronic cylinders. In the case of towercos, their assets are normally surrounded by fences or concrete structures, hence the most common solution to securing the towers are padlocks. The assets and tools vary but we adopt the same systematic approach and all our solutions rely on the same procedures, which are centralised through our software.
TowerXchange: How have your solutions evolved over the last few years and how is the arrival of 5G going to transform the security of telecom infrastructure assets?
Alejandro Valderrama, Regional Director, Latin America, ABLOY Critical Infrastructure:
Our solutions have always evolved at the same pace as the industry and its changing needs. We started offering mechanical master systems with patented mechanical keys. Then we moved into mechatronic padlocks and cylinders with bluetooth keys. Now we are introducing ABLOY BEAT, our new digital solution that features an extreme weatherproof bluetooth padlock operated with a mobile application and a digital key. Our solutions are all managed by ABLOY OS, an access management system with a cloud MAP-based interface that can be integrated with third party applications and systems to improve their existing workflow. The software has a very friendly graphic interface that can be easily managed as it offers real images and maps. The system also generates very accurate data and is cloud-based, so it can be managed from anywhere—a feature especially important on the current climate with companies moving towards remote working.
In terms of 5G, ABLOY is very well positioned to satisfy the new security requirements of this technology. 5G will bring new infrastructure to the field in a smaller size format to guarantee massive and critical machine communication as well as extreme mobile broadband. The protection of these new assets will demand intelligent locking devices, a new technology that includes online status monitoring, remote opening and closing, self-diagnosis, vandalism alarms, maintenance alerts and other future-proof features.
TowerXchange: What are the main challenges that Covid-19 is bringing to the company and how are you dealing with it in Latin America?
Alejandro Valderrama, Regional Director, Latin America, ABLOY Critical Infrastructure:
Our main challenge today is to continue providing a premium service to our telecom customers during the current crisis, which is pushing everybody to work under very special circumstances. Our installed products are a critical link to the MNOs and towercos business continuity so we need to be there for our clients. The majority of the countries in Latin America are in lockdown and our teams are serving different needs remotely or on-site. We have to adapt quickly and provide our usual after sales services with both our teams and clients working far from the usual workplaces. In the US, our office has a special permit as we serve critical infrastructure. In Colombia, contrarily, we need our clients to issue a specific permit for us to be able to operate and assist them. MNOs are effectively considered to provide a critical service so we have to work very closely and find the best way to assist them when on-site issues arise and they need to access their towers. Recently, one of our MNO clients needed our on-site assistance so their operators came to pick up one of our technicians who assisted them on one of their sites.
The fact that our solutions can be managed remotely through a centralised software, has better prepared us to face this current challenge.
TowerXchange: Where do you identify the biggest opportunities in the near term?
Alejandro Valderrama, Regional Director, Latin America, ABLOY Critical Infrastructure:
Over the last couple of years, we have seen that most of our telecom clients are trying to drive operational excellence and efficiency, and the current crisis is making that need even more evident. Security and smart control access solutions are critical to achieving that goal and that trend in our clients strategies, can help drive more business opportunities for us.
Latin America is a very important market for ABLOY. The region brings its particular challenges, most of them related to the political and socioeconomic instability of certain countries, which can slow down investments. However, telecom is providing an essential service to our societies and the arrival of 5G will drive huge investment on critical infrastructure. More connected devices mean more infrastructure, and that infrastructure will need to be secured with intelligent solutions. Smart cities and IoT initiatives will bring new protocols that require smart, autonomous and efficient management systems and we feel that our technology is in a very good position to address and satisfy those needs.
In terms of specific countries, Brazil is the probably the most relevant one as it is a huge country and a lot of capital is being deployed in telecoms. From a macro perspective, Argentina presents enormous opportunities also but both countries bring considerable challenges, especially the latter.
Mexico and the Andean region with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador have always been a critical area for us, and we plan to continue maximising the opportunities with our clients in these markets.
TowerXchange: How do you differentiate yourself from the competition and what are the main advantages of your solutions?
Alejandro Valderrama, Regional Director, Latin America, ABLOY Critical Infrastructure:
Customer centricity, product quality and a premium customer service are our competitive advantages.
We work closely with our telecom clients and we develop all our solutions taking into account their operational challenges and the industry’s needs. We manufacture our hardware in Finland, at our Joensuu factory. Our products feature the latest technologies, guarantying the best performance on the field even under extreme weather conditions.
We also have a global software development team, formed by different units across several countries, that are focused on bringing the friendliest customer experience. As mentioned, we have a strong distribution network in each Latin American country, with the support of two competence centres in Mexico and Colombia. We are committed to providing a premium customer support to keep our clients satisfied while building long-term business relations.
TowerXchange: How do you help your clients to drive efficiencies across their operations? Can you share some success stories?
Alejandro Valderrama, Regional Director, Latin America, ABLOY Critical Infrastructure:
Our solutions help our customers to achieve operational excellence. Our latest innovation, ABLOY BEAT, reduces workforce transportation and facilitates maintenance-related logistics. It also drives efficiencies on all maintenance processes while reducing security risks. Finally, it drives sustainability by allowing a reduction in transportation costs and fuel use.
As mentioned, our telecom clients have a common challenge; securing and maintaining their infrastructure in the most efficient way. Some of our clients are managing big, widespread tower portfolios with some sites not having the same access control system. When a client needs to install a new BTS or execute any maintenance operation on a tower and they don’t have a proper access control system in place, technicians have to travel to a distribution center to obtain a physical key that opens the site. Once maintenance is carried out they travel back to the distribution center to return the key – a process which is not a very efficient. Often, technicians do not bring the right keys and in some cases the locks have been recently changed without notice due to thefts. Sometimes the operators steal equipment from the tower and companies cannot identify who is accountable, as it is not possible to trace the physical journey of that key.
Our access control tools and centralised software allow the client to digitally manage the whole process remotely. With one of the largest MNOs in the region, we have implemented a very efficient ticketing system. Each time an operator needs to access a site, the MNO issues a ticket that creates an automatic permit to the mechatronic bluetooh key which opens the site. The process is indeed easier, eliminates transportation costs and allows the MNO to monitor the whole process remotely.
