Selecting the right static asset manufacturer isn’t just about price – although the ability to produce light weight, low cost towers is critical to being competitive in this category of the passive infrastructure ecosystem. With so many providers offering essentially similar designs, manufacturing services and delivery schedules, differentiation is often on the ease of installation and the quality of project management received. TowerXchange spoke to NRO material manufacturers GSM Telecom Products to learn more.
TowerXchange: Please introduce us to GSM Telecom Products (GSM TP) and tell us where you fit in the infrastructure telecoms ecosystem.
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
Launched in 2012, GSM TP designs and manufactures all the NRO materials a tower operator or installation service provider needs. Our team has a background in tower installation, so we believe there’s a market for tower designers focused on easing installation while manufacturing light weight, low cost towers and accessories to our own designs to meet client specifications.
TowerXchange: Please tell us about GSM TP’s experiences in Africa – I understand your towers have been deployed in Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger – how did you meet the client’s requirements in each country?
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
We started out focusing on Burkina Faso as our analysis suggested that was where we had the highest probability for success, given the relatively low mobile penetration and growth potential.
As a new player in the market, we used traditional and non-traditional ways of contacting the right people; for example our first contact was established through LinkedIn. Then it was a case going over and meeting people locally, securing references and growing our network into Niger and Benin.
Ouagadougou is such a low-rise city that it has to be considered like a rural area, so designing a 50m tower to support 69.5sqm of antenna isn’t easy in such wind conditions!
GSM TP’s first project was for 21 towers for Telecel in Burkina Faso. They had followed their own tower design criteria, and their requirements were different from other operators. The order was for 20 backbone towers, plus a heavy 50m tower close to their data centre, which hosted 69.5 sqm of antennae! Fortunately the client had really thought-through that big data centre tower, which was a challenging design as is had antennas on more or less every sqm!
Tower designers work to three general categories: seaside towers that have to cope with gusty wind, inland rural towers exposed to direct wind, and urban towers where wind is deflected by buildings. Ouagadougou is such a low-rise city that it has to be considered like a rural area, so designing a 50m tower to support 69.5sqm of antenna isn’t easy in such wind conditions!
The structure also could not flex as much as the usual 1° - we had to work within a maximum of ½° of deflection, which made the design challenging with such a substantial antenna loading. We overcame these challenges by making the tower broader, moving the stress outward, and angling the exposed projected area. We also had to create bigger foundations with stronger reinforcing steel and use higher quality steel to ensure the main structure had appropriate tensile strength. This meant it was quite a heavy tower.
We received the contract for 21 towers from Telecel in Burkina Faso last May, completed the shipment in July, and had photos of the towers being installed by the subcontractor by October. We’ve subsequently received orders for another 49 towers from the same client.
We’ve also put 15 towers into Niger with a local partner. The biggest challenge there was logistical as the shipping company didn’t want to release the containers in Niger, so they eventually had to be re-packed and trucked in from Ghana. It’s much more economical when we can ship to a local port where the contractor picks up the shipment directly and ensures it clears customs.
TowerXchange: What are the critical success factors tower operators should consider when selecting a design and manufacturing partner?
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
It’s important to do a proper analysis in advance, and to objectify things buyers tend to look at subjectively. We think buyers should include “soft factors” in their RFP scoresheet, such as how well logistics work, or whether the supplier offers a single point of contact. We believe in having one person in charge of the project to answer all questions, and in installing that project manager before the deal closes to ensure they have good chemistry with the client. GSM TP offer complete manufacture and delivery of all NRO materials; not just the tower but aviation lights, fences, generators, power supply systems – all through a single point of accountability.
We also think it’s important to look at more than just price! For example, we once tendered to a contractor who just wanted a price per kilo of steel, which disincentivised efficient light-weight designs!
It’s important to consider a contractor’s NRO planning skills. Do they have an after-sales project management system to use after the PO is issued? When will they start talking about foundations? How will they run the project through?
Project materials often need to be onsite two weeks before the tower as the concrete needed to dry, yet I’ve encountered too many cases where the project manager only realises this one week before the towers are shipped, which means incurring extra cost flying in raw materials, or warehousing the tower components for days if not weeks whilst the project “catches up”! That doesn’t happen with GSM TP – we’ll be running the project from the moment the tower manufacture starts.
TowerXchange: How does GSM TP package your deliveries to ease the installation of your towers?
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
We look at things from the installer’s point of view, and continuously seek to improve how we package our towers to make them easier to install.
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Currently, the only way many tower parts are identified is with a small stamp of the part number. We use strong, bright colours to indicate which section is which – almost like a Lego™ set!
But GSM TP’s “smartPack” is offers more than colour coding. It starts from how we pack the towers into shipping containers at the factory; we use round wood between each layer to avoid damage in transit and to make it easier to manually pull out of the container onsite.
We’re currently conducting a QR code test project, where our customers could download our app, scan the QR code on any section of the tower, and get links to the digital drawings, packing list and colour codes enabling them to identify each component easily.
TowerXchange: How do you ensure GSM TP is able to compete on price?
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
Being a lean organization with a very low cost of sales, being a low cost provider is part of our business model. As our designs are produced in-house, it gives us the flexibility to move between factories depending on fluctuations in steel price, so we can use factories in Thailand, India, Korea or China for example.
TowerXchange: At what sort of volume of orders can clients unlock the best economies of scale?
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
Like any business, tower manufacturing needs high volumes and fairly standardised orders to realise the best prices. We feel the best prices are found around the 2,000 tonne mark (150-200 towers), although we can still leverage a volume discount on 100-150 towers. The more variation within the project specification, the higher the price; 35 different towers are significantly more expensive to manufacture than 35 the same!
TowerXchange: How does the design of a single tenant tower differ from a multi-tenant tower?
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
A single tenant tower is lighter, with a smaller wind and antenna load. Multi-tenant towers require capacity for more antennas, so need a higher wind load, and are heavier.
Structurally, with multi-tenant towers you want more straight sections in the premium locations in the top ten metres of the tower, whereas a normal tower has an angle tapering from a broad at base all the way to the top to move stresses away from the tower. Multi-tenant towers with more straight sections require stronger steel, which again adds weight.
Despite the additional weight and therefore cost of multi-tenant towers, building a multi-tenant tower is still a lot cheaper than building three towers.
TowerXchange: After a site has been installed, how can it be upgraded to add capacity for multiple tenants?
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
To add capacity for multiple tenants, we need to evaluate which sections of the tower aren’t utilised to their maximum capacity, and we need to evaluate which sections of the tower are most vulnerable for wind distress, and any remove instabilities in the tower that may result when the towerco increases antenna loading.
There are two potential design solutions to increase a tower’s maximum capacity. The first is to add strength by installing more steel, for example by adding flat steel inside the angle, or by strengthening tower legs. In such instances engineers would have to calculate the required thickness and any need to increase the size of foundation.
The second alternative is to move antennas lower on the structure, but you have to calculate the affect on range, and you have more options on an 80m tower than a 50m tower. It’s important towers are designed to have microwave antennas low on the structure.
Upgrades are much easier when the tower operator has the original manufacturer’s drawings. When you have to design upgrades based on onsite checks, tests and measures there’s a danger you can miss something, such as accurately assessing the quality of steel used. Exhaustive checks of towers, especially after acquisition by towercos, make this process easier, but they can be costly.
TowerXchange: What quality standards does GSM TP you manufacture to?
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
We design to an American TIA standard, but we can design to an Eurocode or local standard where necessary. We respond to any requirements in the customer’s specification, for example their minimum thickness of galvanization.
We generally work to our own internal quality manual, which factories have to follow, and which also defines the quality of steel and care of steel; to date we’ve found no operator with quality standards stricter than our own. Our internal standard complies with any ISO standard – for example we consider ISO 14000 or 14001 gives a minimum level of quality, but we want more above and beyond that. We always buy from ISO certified suppliers of course.
TowerXchange: GSM TP is developing a power solution too I believe – tell us about that.
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
Our smart site hybrid power solution for unreliable grid sites, which combines line conditioning, phase selection, renewables and a controller to optimise everything, is reaching final stages of testing. We’re funded by Innovation Norway, so we have governmental support. We have a tral site live in Afghanistan, and are in negotiation to install into 56 sites in Guinea.
TowerXchange: Summing up, how do you differentiate GSM TP’s tower design and manufacture services from competitors’?
Torstein Grytting, COO, GSM TP:
I believe our design is incredibly flexible. GSM TP designs and manufactures highly optimised, very low weight towers, and is therefore able to offer them at a very competitive price.
We tailor to the project specifications, using our experience in installations, skills in the supply chain and our smartPack strategies to ensure our towers are quickly and easily installed.
We offer a single project manager point of contact and use our own materials, creating a single point of accountability.
