A view of Tanzania from the front lines of the market’s leading managed service provider

NEWL (Northern Engineering Works Ltd) is the leading managed services company in Tanzania, managing O&M for passive and active infrastructure at 2,100 tower sites in Tanzania across three leading mobile operators. NEWL also has an operation in Malawi where they maintain 285 sites, half of the Malawi Airtel network, on behalf of NSN. NEWL’s regional expansion plans are now at an advanced stage, as well as plans to further extend their service portfolio with an objective of offering end-to-end services including site design, build, installation, commissioning and maintenance.

TowerXchange: Please introduce our readers to NEWL

NEWL was registered as a company on 1987. Our initial focus was on general engineering supplies and services, and we had agreements with various parastatals to maintain their vehicles. In 2000, NEWL entered the telecoms market, and in 2001 we commenced our first tower maintenance contract with CelTel (now Airtel).

In the 21st century NEWL has diversified our service portfolio to include site audits, tower management services, installation, commissioning, network field operations and maintenance, and diesel refuelling.

NEWL services extend beyond passive infrastructure to include the radio network - our engineers have experience with multiple vendors’ equipment, we conduct network planning and optimisation through benchmarking drive tests, we’ve deployed in-building solutions and network quality analyses. We have experience of preventative and corrective maintenance, on passive, active and field maintenance on transmission equipment. We’ve deployed just about every type of site from GSM and CDMA BTS to microwave hops, MSC and BSCs.

NEWL has also undertaken many commercial grid installations for Airtel. We’ve deployed 70% of their grid-connected sites in Tanzania, deploying both HT (high tension) and LT powerline installations.

We manage equipment warehousing and logistics in-house and maintain a fleet of trucks and cranes, providing services to transport equipment to remote regions of Tanzania and Malawi.

TowerXchange: What is NEWL’s footprint in Africa?

We’re managing over 2,000 sites for Vodacom, Airtel and Zantel in Tanzania, that’s roughly half of each of their networks, making NEWL the largest maintenance contractor in Tanzania.

We’re also managing over 280 sites in Malawi for Airtel Malawi, about half their network, on behalf of NSN.

Our headquarters is based in Arusha, Tanzania, but we have local offices in every major city. Our Malawi head office is in Lilongwe and we have a sub office in Mzuzu.

NEWL are in the process of registering a business in Kenya, with further plans for offices opening in Zambia, Rwanda and Uganda, cementing our focus on East and Central Africa.

TowerXchange: What has been the impact of Helios Towers Africa entering the Tanzania market, initially acquiring towers from Millicom / Tigo, and now also from Vodacom?

The entry of Helios Towers Africa into Tanzania has had a big impact on our business. We have been monitoring the progress of Helios Towers Africa’s most recent transaction (in which HTA acquired 1,149 towers from Vodacom Tanzania). NEWL manage over 780 Vodacom sites at present, so we are currently negotiating a new contract with Helios Towers Tanzania (HTT) - we hope to continue serving those sites under HTT, and we’re working hard towards achieving that, and are keen to meet the key stakeholders at the TowerXchange Meetup.

The entry of towercos into the Tanzanian market is good news. There has been substantial pressure to improve operator margins and to reduce opex costs. That has impacted us directly. The towerco model has the advantage of co-locations, concentrating more tenants per site, making it easier to manage operations. NEWL are developing innovative operations models to deal with the towerco business model.

TowerXchange: How does tower sharing enable economies of scale?

In the five years I’ve been in Tanzania the structure of our business has changed. Where once we had dedicated teams for each operator, and field engineers spent a large proportion of their time on the road, now our model is regional, with each local team looking after a cluster of 20-25 towers for a mix of operators.

Competitive pressure and reducing ARPU means operators need to reduce opex, and we can help them create efficiencies and cost savings. HTT’s shared towers leads to efficiencies for all stakeholders, saving wear and tear and diesel consumption within our fleet, which is one of our biggest costs.

TowerXchange: What are the logistical challenges of rolling out new towers in Tanzania?

Tanzania is a huge country, the size of France and Germany combined, with a limited road network, so it’s important to unlock operational efficiencies. Many of the cell sites follow the main road backbone, but an increasing number of sites are being built in populated areas that are not so well served by road network.

NEWL’s local teams of technicians use our fleet of 4x4’s, usually Land Cruisers or similar types of Pickups, to maintain access infrastructure, including power, and active equipment. We manage security at some sites too. NEWL has strict SLAs with KPIs with our clients, and must attend each site within 1-3 hours, depending on level of that site.

TowerXchange: Tell us about the energy solutions deployed at Tanzania’s cell sites.

The grid in Tanzania is currently not stable, and at times can be quite poor. There were periods last year when sites had 18 hours per day without grid power, even in the main cities. This has driven an increasing interest in hybrid energy.

NEWL has particular expertise in the rollout of hybrid and solar systems. These hybrid systems are being shipped in from all over the world, but often without any local expertise to modify them to the specific requirements of different locations in Tanzania. For example, we’ve often found that alarms and reporting systems require configuration so as not to cause confusion and ultimately prevent hybrid from delivering the expected efficiencies.

NEWL have built up a team of technicians with solar and hybrid solutions expertise, who can get to grips with these systems very quickly, and we’ve been working with international companies on how to adapt their systems to Tanzania.

TowerXchange: What has been the impact of LTE so far in Tanzania?

To date, LTE has been deployed mostly in big cities such as Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Mwanza. Smile are targeting business users, and NEWL uses Smile in our own office in Dar es Salaam. Smile planning to launch in Arusha in October this year. NEWL have been part of the LTE Vodacom trial team, providing drive test services.

Tanzania’s data network is serviced largely through the National Fibre Backbone at present, and can be a bit restrictive due to the monopoly, so we’re eagerly awaiting LTE. We think there is huge pent-up demand for mobile broadband in Tanzania. Most of the callouts we get are from mining areas and other resource rich areas. If LTE comes reaches such regions, uptake will be huge.

TowerXchange: Tanzania is a very regionalised market - will infrastructure sharing transform the regionalised structure of the market?

Tanzania is indeed a very regionalised market - each operator has more subscribers in a particular region, and seemed not to have immediate plans to expand aggressively into other regions, although Vodacom and Airtel have a presence across all regions.

In the last 2-3 years there has been substantial bi-lateral tower sharing even without towercos.

Airtel are in the process of transferring their Tanzanian towers to their local Africa Towers subsidiary. Tigo have been strong in cities and have particularly targeted the youth market - students and universities. Vodacom have been in expansion mode, building new sites aggressively. And of course they recently sold their towers to HTT, who will help with their network expansion. Zantel are looking at similar options with their network.

TowerXchange: Please introduce us to the telecom industry and to the tower market in Malawi.

There are two leading operators in Malawi. Airtel are market leaders, then you have TNM, the state-owned operator (in whioch Vodacom have been rumoured to be interested in purchasing a share), and a couple of operators so small that they don’t even outsource O&M.

We recently met the Malawi Communications Director General at an ICT Summut, and he confirmed that there were no major changes expected in the Malawi telecom tower market apart from the registration of Airtel’s Africa Towers.

Airtel Malawi dominate with 80-85% market share. There are around 500 towers in total in Malawi, and even though the the country is challenged economically, the number of mobile subscribers is growing substantially.

TowerXchange: Finally, how do NEWL differentiate your company from other managed service providers?

Over the last five years NEWL has differentiated ourselves through our efficient operational model, which makes us very attractive to operators and to services providers like NSN.

As we see the transition of towers from operator-captive to independent towercos, we see an opportunity to manage more sites, to create more efficiencies through our cost saving models, and this will allow us to pass on more value to the customer.

NEWL is a one stop shop for managed services - we don’t subcontract - we cover the whole supply chain from leasing, permitting, installation, O&M all the way to warehousing and logistics.

For quick rollouts, NEWL is the partner of choice.

NEWL is a private company and the management team get full support of our principal, which means we’re able to make quick decisions.

We have a strong mix of locals and international on the management team, supported by local engineers and technicians and we continue to develop local engineering skills by formalising our relationship with local technical colleges, giving them guidance on courses and taking in interns and trainees. Those colleges are now better connected to what the industry wants, and they’re turning out mechanical, telecommunications and electrical engineers and technicians at with a high level of skills.

We are serious about H&S and about investing in new technologies and management systems, for example we have recently completed the installation of a tracking system in our fleet.

Five years ago there were probably 25 subcontractors competing in Tanzania, but pressure on prices has whittled that down to four large, strong players, of which NEWL is the market leader, plus five or size smaller players.

Managing towers in Tanzania is like a military operation with a 24-hour system. We learn from the last 24 hours and focus on the next 24 hours. Success comes from structuring our business and our NOC to manage the little crises that are going on all the time.