Zamil reduces TCO of telecom towers

US$8bn giant Zamil provides a range of tower design and manufacture, managed services and power solutions to the telecom industry. In this interview, CEO Vivek Gupta focuses on the tower design and manufacturing capabilities of Zamil, emphasising how they accelerate time to market and reduce TCO.

TowerXchange: Please introduce your company – where do you fit in the telecoms infrastructure ecosystem?

Zamil is an 85 year old group from Saudi Arabia which has more than US$8bn group revenue with operations in 90 countries.  Zamil has a comprehensive offering both for the build and management of infrastructure. In build our face, not only do we supply world class towers and power solutions, but also render our turnkey services to optimise capex.  Zamil is also one of the leading managed services companies and is capable of managing both passive infrastructure as well as telecom equipment all across the globe. In the renewable energy space, Zamil is both an EPC company as well as a power developer and can offer hybrid power solutions to our customers.

TowerXchange: What is your production capacity in tonnes of steel, and how does that convert into volume of, for example, 40m three legged telecom towers? 

Zamil has a fabrication capability of more than 700,000 MT on a comprehensive basis which include towers, pre-engineered buildings and other steel structures.  Purely for towers, Zamil is capable to supply more than 25,000 towers through its own manufacturing facilities and OEM’s.

TowerXchange: The first question our readers will want to know is ‘how proven are the structures in the field’ – please tell us about some example clients and some example projects?

Zamil design includes all the leading standards globally and is known for delivering world class quality. In the steel business, we have more than 35 years of experience in telecom and power transmission towers and leading telcos and power utilities globally are our esteemed customers.

TowerXchange: How should MNOs and towercos strike a balance between the cost and volume benefits of standardisation versus the needs to customise structures for different environments and wind loading?

We appreciate that each customer has got different requirements including wind velocity and loadings. At Zamil our constant endeavor is to bring design marvel, optimisation of tower weights and pass on the advantages of economies of scale by reducing total cost of ownership. Needless to say that a lighter tower needs a lighter foundation.

TowerXchange: How do you ensure the deliverability and easy installation of your structures?

Our towers are delivered well staged and packed in wooden boxes with a comprehensive packing list.  This avoids ambiguity at the time of secondary transportation to the sites.  Since each tower is fabricated only after exhaustive prototype approval process, the work of the field team is very comfortable when it comes to erecting the tower meeting aggressive timelines. We provide comprehensive guidelines through our erection manual to the field teams which in many of the cases are local companies hired by our esteemed customers directly for erection purposes.

TowerXchange: What innovations in foundation materials and design can be leveraged to accelerate time to market, reduce costs and improve the re-usability of towers?

More than 30 years back Zamil revolutionised the construction industry by offering prefab buildings against conventional brick and mortar structures. In the same way Zamil in Saudi Arabia owns a manufacturing unit which builds precast blocks. Today when speed to market is key some rapid deployments can be made operational in less than 24 hours using precast blocks. Even for conventional foundations, Zamil designers keep in mind the concrete to steel ratios balance to optimise the overall foundation cost. As I said earlier, for us speed as well as total cost of ownership matters when we deliver our towers to our customers.

TowerXchange: When designing new sites, how do you balance the concerns of camouflage, cost and structural capacity?

Due to constant pressures of civic bodies and neighborhood communities camouflaging is becoming a regular practice in majority of the countries. Zamil’s camouflage portfolio encompasses of not only a palm tree but also street light poles, rain-bus shelters, harmonic sites and all kinds of roof top camouflage structures which can match the glanzing of the building facade.  Zamil is also offering customised minara structures even for religious spaces for worship.

TowerXchange: Please sum up how you would differentiate your solutions from your competitors’?

While we all acknowledge that steel is a commoditised business, yet at Zamil we are committed to leverage our design innovation and economy of scale to deliver the best at the most economical prices. We carefully listen to the needs of our customers and want to sell them what they want rather than standard off the shelf product.