We thought we’d do something a little different to introduce tower designer and manufacturer LeBLANC. Instead of telling you about the two day installation of LeBLANC’s rapid deployment units, we thought we’d show you the installation in a series of timed images, together with a brief commentary introducing this innovative tower design and manufacturing firm, which has thousands of towers installed across Asia and Africa.
TowerXchange: Where does LeBLANC fit in the telecoms ecosystem?
Matt Pritchard, Director, International Sales, LeBLANC Communications:
LeBLANC’s core business is the design and fabrication of communication and broadcast structures; from your basic 30m telco tower up to a 300m self support broadcast. We also offer a complete range of foundation designs for all structure types and soil conditions. In addition to the supply side of the business we also offer full turnkey services for all aspects of the telecom and broadcast market.
LeBLANC has been in operation since 1962 when it was founded in Canada. Since it’s inception it has grown into a multi-national company with operations in over ten countries and on four continents. LeBLANC Communications Malaysia, (LCM) has been in operation for over 20 years supplying towers to Asia, the Pacific region, Africa and South America. LCM is now a stand-alone company, completely Malaysian owned and no longer part of the LeBLANC Group, but still working closely with them and supplying their needs for Australia and Indonesia.
TowerXchange: Please share some examples of your major supply contracts.
Matt Pritchard, Director, International Sales, LeBLANC Communications:
Since January 2014 we have supplied over 1,000 towers to towercos and MNOs in Myanmar. We are a preferred supplier to E/// and are currently supplying to Ericsson in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Australia. Over 900 of our towers have been deployed into the Digicel network across the Pacific and even into Panama and Costa Rica. We have supplied towers to Centennial Towers, Global Tower Partners and rapid deployment structures to American Tower in CALA. We have a continuing partnership with Sagemcom whereby we supply the towers and they do full turnkey solutions direct to the MNOs or towercos throughout several African countries. From 2010 until 2013 we also supplied to ALU.
TowerXchange: What is LeBlanc’s manufacturing capacity?
Matt Pritchard, Director, International Sales, LeBLANC Communications:
We can manufacture 1,300 tonnes of towers / 15 monopoles per month from our factory in Malaysia, and up to 5,000 tonnes per month from two separate factories in China.
TowerXchange: Please tell us about the use cases for LeBLANC’s Rapid Deployment Solution (RDS) and Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU).
Matt Pritchard, Director, International Sales, LeBLANC Communications:
LeBLANC’s RDS is an ideal solution for remote sites where excavation is challenging or where there is no access to concrete.
Over 300 of our RDSs have been deployed into Papua New Guinea, and dozens are also in use within American Tower’s Mexican network. While the typical weight for a complete 45m RDS is just 18 tonnes, the total transportation weight for the same 45m tower with a concrete foundation would be approximately 58 tonnes – illustrative of the savings in transportation costs alone!
The RDS can be buried just 50mm below ground level and the excavated earth used as backfill, or indeed you can build above ground level and use surrounding earth as backfill. With minimal disturbance of soil, building permits can be easier to obtain.
A 45m RDS tower can fit on a plot as small as 7m x 7m.
If land space and costs are really at a premium, our RDUs fit plots as small as 4m x 4m, and can be installed in under 12 hours. With no excavation required, sometimes you may not need a building permit, and with the entire site built, inclusive of TI, your crew can be in and out before complaints from locals can halt work.
TowerXchange: As a company with a global footprint, can you tell us about how you see the African market differs from the rest of the world?
Matt Pritchard, Director, International Sales, LeBLANC Communications:
We currently have limited presence in Africa, working on a supply only basis for several key customers. We have supplied over 1,000 towers over the past few years. We are very much looking forward to becoming a bigger part of the African tower market, which is one of the reasons we have decided to participate in TowerXchange this year.
TowerXchange: As the market tips from towers being MNO-captive to owned by towercos, are you seeing a difference in client demands?
Matt Pritchard, Director, International Sales, LeBLANC Communications:
Yes, definitely. The towers are becoming slightly heavier to enable them to cater for multiple operators. The need for versatility in tower heights, as well as ease of upgrading, is also becoming increasingly important.
TowerXchange: Where do you see the growth in Africa? How many new towers are needed and where?
Matt Pritchard, Director, International Sales, LeBLANC Communications:
I would need a crystal ball in order to answer this, and hence the reason we are coming to TowerXchange!
TowerXchange: Please can you sum up what differentiates Le Blanc from other equipment and service providers to MNOs and Towercos?
Matt Pritchard, Director, International Sales, LeBLANC Communications:
LeBLANC delivers cutting edge communication and broadcast structures on spec and on budget. We are driven by the need to meet and exceed the expectations of a diverse group of customers, inspiring us to provide tailored products and systems rapidly and efficiently.
LeBLANC leverages over 30 years of engineering excellence from the simplest communications structures to huge, complex broadcast towers. We use state of the art “engineering platforms” for tower design which enable us to quickly adapt to specific countries’ engineering standards. We listen to our customers and to their build to suit requirements, and do not overdesign to sell more steel.
Our solutions are industry approved by leading equipment manufacturers such as E///, Alcatel Lucent and Huawei, who conduct comprehensive factory inspections.
We understand that time to market is critical in the tower and telecommunication business, so our innovative RDS is supported by a best-in-class shipping methodology which employs trolley systems to accelerate the packaging and roll-in and roll-out of containers. We keep shipping in-house to ensure efficient, cost effective on-time delivery and to give our customers a single point of accountability.
LeBLANC is renowned for our “customer guarantee” – we stand by our products no matter what the cost. We go the extra mile to assist operators, towercos, OEMs and their subcontractors with infrastructure build out.
