Event report: Lessons learned at the TowerXchange Meetup Asia 2014

TowerXchange Meetups attract senior representatives from all segments of the telecoms infrastructure ecosystem, including MNOs, investors, equipment and service providers, but what is unique about this community is it’s ability to engage with CXOs at the tower companies who are acquiring an increasing proportion of the telecom towers in some of Southern and Southeast Asia’s most important markets.

The TowerXchange Meetup Asia attracted senior representatives of 74% of the region’s towercos who own or are contracted to build >1,000 towers, including critical players such as Apollo Towers, Digicel MTC, Indus Towers, Irrawaddy Green Towers, Protelindo, STP, Viom Networks and Axiata’s new towerco edotco, who were the Diamond Sponsors of the event – most of the executive management team from edotco were present including the CEO, COO and CSMO.

When independent towercos enter a market and build towers for, or acquire towers from, MNOs, the towerco assumes responsibility for the procurement of passive infrastructure equipment and services.

The independent towerco business model originated in India. India is therefore a mature market with two thirds of the country’s 450,000 towers owned by towercos, and almost all the new build undertaken by towercos. The Indonesian towerco market is similarly well established, 51% penetrated, and highly lucrative.

The phenomenon of independent towercos building and acquiring towers is newer elsewhere in Southern and Southeast Asia. Most noteworthy is the greenfield rollout in Myanmar, where the ~1,800 towers owned by MPT and the additional 250-400 being built by Huawei for MPT notwithstanding, all the new towers being rolled out by newly licensed international operators Telenor and Ooredoo will be built and owned by independent towercos. TowerXchange forecast that 85% of Myanmar’s towers will be owned by independent towercos by 2018.

The independent towerco business model is starting to take root in several new countries, driven by the launch of Axiata’s towerco, edotco. edotco owns 13,000 towers across Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Cambodia, plus 12,000km of fibre and plans to build towers in Pakistan. There are also small local towercos in each of these markets, as well as in Vietnam.

Deploying 1,001 towers in the initial phase of rollout for Telenor

Representative(s):

HB, Head of Corporate Finance

One of Asia’s leading MNOs

Representative(s):

DB, Advisor to the CEO

Malaysian towerco, operating over 250 towers in the country

Representative(s):

MH-M, CEO

Rolling out 1,250 towers in the first phase for Ooredoo

Representative(s):

OC, CEO

Axiata’s carve out towerco. Owns over 12,000 towers across Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Cambodia

Representative(s):

SS, CEO

ThR, CFO

NE, COO

WZA, CMO

JM, Founder

GK, Director, Group Strategy and Commercial

NIA, Head, Electrical & Power System Design

RD, Advisor, Regulatory

edotco recently completed a transaction with Robi in Bangladesh, where they market 5,300 towers

Representative(s):

DS, Country Managing Director

AS, Director, Business Development

edotco markets around 1,500 towers in Cambodia

Representative(s):

PW, Country Managing Director

edotco owns over 3,500 towers in Malaysia, carved out from Axiata’s local opco Celcom

Representative(s):

HHZS, Country manager – Malaysia

CWL, Specialist, Marketing Communications

MSBM, Key Account Manager

edotco owns 12,000km of fibre in Pakistan and is building a towerco organically

Representative(s):

MRF, Head of Business Development

edotco markets 2,150 towers in Sri Lanka, acquired from Dialog

Representative(s):

MV, Country Managing Director

One of Africa’s fastest growing MNOs, with licenses in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire

Representative(s):

AG, CTO

Operator-led towerco carve-out from Turkey, where they own 20,000 assets. Owned by Turkcell. Also has a subsidiary, UkrTOWER, in Ukraine, where they own 500 towers

Representative(s):

CNB, General Manager

ET, Director

Indian towerco, where they operate 29,432 towers.

Representative(s):

TK, VP, Strategic Initiatives

Majority owned by Hutchinson Whampoa, Hutchinson 3 operates in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom

Representative(s):

FK, Site Sharing Roll-Out Manager

One of Indonesia’s ‘Big Four MNOs

Representative(s):

FP, Division Head Tower Commerce - Tower Management Group

TF, DH Administration and Compliance

World’s largest towerco, operating 114,101 towers across India

Representative(s):

BD, COO

MS, Management Officer

SS, CSMO

Rolling out 1,500 towers in phase one for Telenor Myanmar

Representative(s):

PT, Chairman

AK, Vice Chairman

KD, CFO

Japanese operator and Sumitomo Bank injected around US$2bn into incumbent Myanmar operator MPT earlier in 2014

Representative(s):

TN, Manager

Building an interesting Indonesian towerco one acquisition at a time. Current tower count is around 500

Representative(s):

DB, CEO

Ooredoo launched services in Myanmar in August 2014, with coverage available to 7.8mn citizens in 71 cities, attracting a million subscribers in its first three weeks of operation

Representative(s):

NS, Chief Strategy Officer

SW, Senior Director and General Counsel

Leading towerco in Indonesia, where they operate 10,300 towers. Protelindo is also involved in Pan Asia Tower in Myanmar, where they are rolling out an initial 1,250 towers for Ooredoo

Representative(s):

SW, CFO

MNO from Bangladesh – recently divested towers to edotco

Representative(s):

MK, Board Member

Independent towerco from Malaysia, where they own over 700 towers

Representative(s):

SO, CEO

Third largest towerco in Indonesia with ~7,000 assets. Recently announced major transaction with XL

Representative(s):

NT, President Director

JG, Finance Director

EAS, Operations Director

Indian mobile network operator

Representative(s):

AS, Head of Sales, Asia Pacific

Bangladeshi operator

Representative(s):

MRKR, Manager of Network Planning and System Engineering

Operates 400 towers across the Middle East and Southern Asia, including in their original market of Pakistan

Representative(s):

RH, President & CEO

SG, Legal Counsel

FM, Manager Strategy and Investments

IS, Director

BK, VP Business Development

Operate 8,600 towers in India

Representative(s):

MS, Founder and Director

Vimpelcom

One of world’s leading MNOs with opcos in Bangladesh and Pakistan

Representative(s):

AM, Business Development Director

FK, Business Development Executive

Operate 43,000 towers in India

Representative(s):

UD, Chief Mentor

The world’s second largest mobile network operator

Representative(s):

SK, Principal Category Manager, Energy & Network Sites Infrastructure

Owner of Eco Friendly Tower Pte., newly formed towerco in Myanmar

Representative(s):

TA, Chairman