TowerXchange wanted to learn about the realities and priorities of managing the local operating company of a towerco. So we met Gareth Townley, Managing Director of Eaton Towers Ghana. Gareth is a veteran of several senior leadership roles in African TMT, including as CEO Africa for Viasat, and CEO of Millicom in Sierra Leone then Ghana.
TowerXchange: How does your mindset need to change as you move from leading an operator to leading a towerco?
Gareth Townley, Managing Director, Eaton Towers Ghana:
When you are running a towerco, you’ve got to remember back to the pre-boom days of African telecoms. Mobile operators started “putting on weight,” by which I mean adding unnecessary cost to the business during the rapid growth experienced in the last decade. As a Towerco, you have got to get back to being proactive, lean and mean.
TowerXchange: Can towercos really be proactive if the operator either needs the location or they don’t? Isn’t there a temptation to just wait for the phone to ring?
Gareth Townley, Managing Director, Eaton Towers Ghana:
We certainly send information on our tower locations to Ghana’s Mobile, 4G, TV, Radio, ISP and WiMAX operators, and yes they’ll call us when their networks are congested or if they’re expanding into new territories.
But during my time as CEO of Viasat Africa, I learnt media sales where it’s sell or die, and I believe the tower industry needs active as well as passive selling.
We’ve got to get away from selling a tower and instead sell access to consumers. We’ve got to know what these people want: do they want to access Facebook, to use mobile money, watch videos, make international calls? How much disposable income do they have? How much airtime and data do they represent for our prospective tenant? Our sales guys need to know the demographics of the areas surrounding the tower, not just the tower itself.
TowerXchange: How are your sales teams organised?
Gareth Townley, Managing Director, Eaton Towers Ghana:
We’re organised by account rather than by region. All the decision makers are in the capital cities so our sales teams are based there.
The mobile operators remain the largest accounts, but TV will get more interesting as it migrates to digital, creating a new demand for towers. Today, Africa’s TV companies are quite small with big city-centric coverage.
TowerXchange: What comes first, the tenancy sale or the upgrade? And how long does it take for a new co-location site to become operational for the tenant?
Gareth Townley, Managing Director, Eaton Towers Ghana:
The priority for the operators is to find a new site on which they can hang their equipment and quickly generate revenue with the minimum reconfiguration.
We usually undertake any required site upgrades after a new tenancy sale. The cycle time can just be a couple of weeks, depending on what needs to be done. The upgrades can consist of some minor tower work or perhaps laying some extra concrete if outdoor equipment is used. We know the size of the generator at each site and what is required with regard to power.
TowerXchange: Are those upgrades handled in-house by Eaton or by selected suppliers?
Gareth Townley, Managing Director, Eaton Towers Ghana:
We have supplier agreements in place with a number of companies who we keep on their toes. It is important to avoid exclusive deals, I need my suppliers to be competitive, ensuring stocks are available at the right price, when I need it.
Eaton Towers handles a majority of its procurement centrally. I only get involved personally to check out local outlets in Ghana – whether they have a good reputation, whether they keep equipment in stock et cetera.
TowerXchange: What are the practicalities of maintaining the power solutions at cell sites?
Gareth Townley, Managing Director, Eaton Towers Ghana: Telecoms is a DC industry. Even though Ghana has relatively stable grid power, we still have sites with significant generator runtime. And inevitably the generator will go down sometimes. But with effective remote monitoring alarms and strong batteries, there is enough time for the maintenance teams to respond and keep the site on air.
TowerXchange: Are three towercos in Ghana too many?
Gareth Townley, Managing Director, Eaton Towers Ghana:
No. It’s better for the industry as competition keeps prices honest and ensures we all have to deliver a great service.
There are enough operators in Ghana to keep three towercos busy, plus TV, radio, 4G, WiMAX players. Most sites can only take three to four tenants, so there’s enough to go around.
The more independent towercos you have in a country, the greater potential for expanded network coverage with lower congestion rates.
TowerXchange: What’s in it for the operator to outsource the passive network to an independent towerco?
Gareth Townley, Managing Director, Eaton Towers Ghana:
Operators are able to unlock the value in their passive network, either by reducing maintenance and operating expenditure or via a cash sum.
It’s true that towercos don’t do anything that the operator can’t do themselves, but I’ve been a CEO of African MNOs and there are a hundred and one other things to concentrate on rather than extracting value from the passive network. Towercos enable the operator to focus on the consumer.
TowerXchange: How would you sum up your priorities as Managing Director of Eaton Towers Ghana?
Gareth Townley, Managing Director, Eaton Towers Ghana:
We have a responsibility to keep the network on the air. If we do that well, it makes the responsibility to sell co-locations, much simpler.
The tower business in Africa isn’t like the US for example, where it’s a pure real estate play.
The African market is much more focused on the logistics of maintaining sites, which then combined with active colocation selling, drives the business forward.
