Cue Dee brings tried and tested features and functionality to the field

TowerXchange asked Patrick Hedlund, Business Development & Key Account Manager at Cue Dee, to explain the quality differentiators of their flagship product, the X-Tower, and the benefits of standardised solutions versus custom-built towers.

TowerXchange: Please tell us about your company.

Cue Dee is a manufacturer of telecoms towers including guide posts, antenna brackets, and wind measurement devices. We were acquired in April 2015 by the Lagercrantz Group, which is active in seven countries in Europe and in China and the US. The Group has more than 1,200 employees and revenue of approximately US$375mn. The company has been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since 2001.

TowerXchange: Please tell us about where you fit in the telecoms ecosystem?

We mainly work with Mobile Network Operators or systems integrators like Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and Alcatel Lucent.

During 2013 CUE DEE and Elektroskandia decided to take the existing cooperation to the next level. Elektroskandia Shanghai has taken over production of CUE DEE’s popular X-Tower system. This was a natural step since the big markets today are in Asia and Africa where Elektroskandia has a strong presence. CUE DEE has retained ownership of the X-Tower system and will still develop and market it, but the production will be handled by Elektroskandia Shanghai.

We hope that this intensified cooperation will bear fruit and that we will be able to better support our customers. Our sourcing plant in China has a high capacity and they also have supply brackets. We also have access to a local logistics company that has a 95% equity in deliveries.

TowerXchange: Can you give us some examples of successful deployments? Which markets were they in and who were you working with?

We have done a lot of work in Africa; for starters we supplied Al Madar the largest operator in Libya with towers for 1,100 sites over a period of eight years with integration undertaken by local companies. In Morocco we provided 238 towers to Méditel, In total we supplied to over 80 countries globally. These towers were adapted to the individual markets and demands of the sites, and they were all greenfield developments. In Asia some projects have included providing towers to Ericsson for Globe in the Philippines and some projects in Taiwan as well.

TowerXchange: What are some of the key differentiators of Cue Dee’s towers?

We use an optimised design, the X-Tower system, which incorporates a wide range of features and specifications that meet most Mobile Network Operator and towerco requirements.

The towers range in size from 20m to 60m, and they come in 4m segments so they can be scaled to meet the needs of the site. We use high quality galvanised steel, and only solid material instead of tubes to prevent corrosion. The towers are stable and resilient, and optimised to withstand winds of up to 200km/h. Our standard model will hold one tenant with an area from 5 to 15 square metres; they are lightweight, easy to install without a crane or helicopter, and have a small footprint. The X-Tower can also be outfitted with other features such as climbing barriers, lightning rods, booms, top spires, fall arrest system, obstruction lights, brackets, etc.

Offering standardised towers enables us to deliver the most cost-effective solution for most instances, and they can be rapidly deployed, reducing time to market. We also have some other types of smaller-scale standardised towers including rapid-deployment units (RDUs) and cell sites on wheels (COWs) for specific scenarios such as live events.

TowerXchange: Do you also offer customised solutions for scenarios where the standard model doesn’t work?

Yes, we also provide custom-built towers in cases where the tower needs to carry heavier loads, when they need to hold more than one tenant, or when a backbone tower is required. Customised towers are generally for smaller projects, for example a special order from an MNO when they have a specific requirement. We start off with a brief and calculate the materials required, the cost and the time requirements and what kind of time to market can be expected. We design everything from the base up and optimise it using TNX and RSTAB, analysis software for 3D steel structure calculations.

TowerXchange: What can we expect next from Cue Dee and the X-Tower?

As we continue to leverage our 20+ years of experience in telecoms infrastructure, we’re constantly looking at new ways to adapt our products. As we expand our global presence we’re moving beyond the remote sites in less developed markets. Now we’re looking at some of the more dense markets in Asia and developing new models that incorporate features like multiple tenancies as standard to meet their unique requirements.