How Digicel excelled in its first towerco venture

Oliver Coughlan didn’t plan to accept a challenging opportunity in Asia, let alone Myanmar. But when Digicel approached him with such an ambitious idea, he couldn’t resist and went on to become the CEO of Digicel Myanmar Tower Company. To date, MTC has built the vast majority of Ooredoo’s infrastructure and is successfully operating in one of the toughest markets in Asia and worldwide.

In this exclusive interview, Oliver shared with us his insights on MTC’s successes to date, the challenges of operating in a frontier market, and the key characteristics of the company’s business model.

TowerXchange: How did Myanmar Tower Company (MTC) evolve from Digicel’s bid for a license in Myanmar? What attracted you personally to Myanmar?

As we all know, Digicel unsuccessfully bid for the telecom license in Myanmar and when that happened, the Group decided not to give up but to offer our expertise to successful applicants such as Ooredoo. In fact, Digicel went through a very detailed phase of groundwork and preparation ahead of the bid which created the foundations for our current venture.

Thanks to its incredible entrepreneurial spirit, Digicel Group was able to create MTC and I am proud to say, we are now the most successful towerco in Myanmar.

Personally, a number of factors pushed me to accept this professional challenge. I had the pleasure to work with the Digicel Chairman Mr. Denis O’Brien around sixteen years ago, back in Ireland, and even though we then parted ways, I always looked at the Group with interest and respect. Digicel Group is a strong company with great vision and entrepreneurial spirit.

At my age, I never thought I’d work in Asia and the day I received the call from Digicel, I just remained on the line a few seconds longer than I normally would as I had an interesting and rewarding position in Ireland. I listened to what sounded like a very challenging, therefore enticing, proposal. I recall going back home and discussing it with my family… My kids and wife all pushed me to take this challenge and here I am, developing one of the hardest and most exciting rollouts ever and I have never looked back.

TowerXchange: Congratulations on MTC’s critical role in Ooredoo’s rapid greenfield rollout and launch in Myanmar. How did you get so many sites on air so quickly?

The rollout didn’t happen without a great deal of energy, perseverance, financial and human capital. As we all know, Myanmar presents some very tough conditions in terms of logistics and infrastructure and delays are quite common in project development.

To be honest, we are a bit behind where we expected and wanted to be, according to our plans. However that said, we all agree it’s been quite a journey and we are proud of the results we’ve achieved to date. A key factor of our success is represented by the amazingly skilled teams we brought in from Digicel Group around the globe.

Digicel Group has a successful track record of developing networks in remote areas of the Caribbean and Asia Pacific and, with 9,500 sites around the world, our team is experienced and ready to face each challenge posed by a frontier market like Myanmar. Additionally, we have the backing of a strong Board of Directors which includes a very knowledgable and supportive local partner in Yoma Strategic Holdings which allowed intensive capital expenditure and supported us in the Ooredoo launch.

We are very  proud to play such a significant part in Ooredoo’s successful network launch and we are fully committed to Ooredoo’s expansion plans. The partnership between Ooredoo and MTC is a good match and the journey has been both challenging and rewarding.

This has been a successful venture for MTC and now we are keen to discuss co-location options with potential clients whilst we continue working to expand our infrastructure in Myanmar.

TowerXchange: Now that MTC has successfully proven itself in Asia, is Digicel looking beyond Myanmar?

With thirty-two business units across the Caribbean, Asia Pacific and Europe, Digicel is a very forward thinking entrepreneurial organisation, open to new opportunities under the right conditions. With the addition of MTC in Myanmar to its successful global operation, I have no doubt that the company is looking for new opportunities.

TowerXchange: What is your business model? Steel and grass or power too?

We adopted a pure steel and grass business model. We build the towers and infrastructure, provide a secure environment for our customers and make sure we do so within the planned timeline.

Our customers provide their equipment as well as power to the site. I believe that so far, they have adopted a variety of energy solutions depending on the specific site conditions. In light of grid power availability challenges, hybrid is the more economical choice in the long run, and is now widely adopted here in Myanmar. However, we see standard dual diesel generator sites as well.

TowerXchange: How has Ooredoo’s power strategy evolved as they’ve moved from the initial phases of the rollout where time was of the essence, to later phases when they perhaps have more time to focus on site efficiency? 

Every successful business, ours included, looks continuously at streamlining operations and reducing opex. I think as MTC evolves and improves, it is no surprise that our clients do the same. Myanmar has been a learning process for everyone involved in the market so there are opportunities to improve for us all.

TowerXchange: Are you able to find good partners locally or are international experts playing a big role initially?

Myanmar is definitely a frontier market which is undergoing a cultural and industrial revolution, therefore finding the right partnership can also be a challenge. The key for us was to engage with the right people, with a sound Health and Safety track record and culture, a proven cost effective model and simply willingness to work hard.

We are now working with some of the best and most capable companies in Asia with successful track records in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and beyond. We are proud to say that we are also partnering with a number companies in Myanmar, which are keen to learn best practices and adopt our model. We’ve so far partnered with highly experience companies while also up-skilling national companies and individuals. I am delighted to say the vast majority of MTC’s Staff are Myanmar nationals, the current and future success of the company is built around these great people.

TowerXchange: Do you agree with the GSMA’s forecast that Myanmar will have around 5,000 towers by y/e 2014 and 17,300 by y/e 2017?

To be honest, these past few months have been so hectic that we haven’t had much time to future-gaze. That said, I believe that GSMA forecasts have been issued prior to Ooredoo launch and if they had to re-look at them now, they might find them quite conservative.

The demand for infrastructure is driven by the continuous growth of the national user base and I believe the GSMA figures are at the lower end of the scale, when you consider the phenomenal growth in the subscriber base

The demand for infrastructure is driven by the continuous growth of the national user base and I believe the GSMA figures are at the lower end of the scale, when you consider the phenomenal growth in the subscriber base.

TowerXchange: How has the principal of shared towers played out in practice so far, are the towercos generally building sites at least 500m apart?

MTC work to industry best practices and standards and have built the most robust tower infrastructure in Myanmar, with a view to sharing with other operators.

TowerXchange: How is the regulatory environment in Myanmar?

We have a very good relationship with PTD (Myanmar’s Post and Telecommunications Department) and they have been very approachable throughout these past few months.

We always have to keep in mind that Myanmar and its National Authorities and Regulatory bodies have been literally hit by a storm of requests and information in a very short period of time. I believe any country, even the most advanced, would struggle to cope with this tremendous evolution we are experiencing here.

That said, I have dealt with very smart people within PTD who know their business and are willing to run the extra mile for the sake of the development of the national telecom sector. These are challenging and yet very exciting times and everyone is overwhelmed by the scale of business growth within this beautiful country.