MTN Ghana was MTN’s first opco to adopt the towerco model, entering into a joint venture with American Tower back in 2010. In this exclusive TowerXchange interview, MTN Ghana’s General Manager of Network Operations (who was part of the team which established the operational elements around tower sales) shares lessons that the MTN group have learned along the way in outsourcing to towercos and how these can help improve site uptime and reduce network TCO.
TowerXchange: Please can you provide an introduction to yourself and your background in the telecoms sector. What does your current role at MTN encompass and how does it integrate into other functions at the opco/ parent company?
Ibrahim Misto, General Manager, Network Operations, MTN:
I am the General Manager of Network Operations at MTN Group, a leading market operator connecting subscribers in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. I am responsible for a range of duties including managing MTN Ghana’s network operations, and providing support to the MTN Group mainly in the areas of network managed services, towerco operational excellence and customer experience management.
I have 15 years of experience with an excellent track record for optimising network performance and driving continuous improvement in a timely manner, to budget constraints, combining end to end change management, risk and strategic management expertise.
I was part of the team which established the operational protocol around selling towers, eventually resulting in MTN’s towers in Ghana moving to a joint venture with American Tower. I supported the MTN Group in rolling out the towerco model in Africa, leveraging the lessons learned from our experience in Ghana which was the first opco to rollout the model within MTN.
I championed the transformation of MTN Ghana’s network to a full managed services model and I supported the managed services rollout in other MTN operations.
I have implemented customer experience transformational projects - including the setup of a Service Operating Center (SOC) interfacing with Network /IT, Customer Care and Marketing - achieving enhanced customer experience and business growth.
I have an insatiable appetite for knowledge and this is evident from my qualifications gained at top business schools and management institutes with exposure to the latest business trends.
My specialties include customer experience management, managed services, stakeholder management, project management, business continuity management, budgetary control, cost effective solutions, new technology evaluation, business strategy and team motivation.
TowerXchange: Please can you provide a bit of a background to the size and shape of MTN’s network in Ghana.
Ibrahim Misto, General Manager, Network Operations, MTN:
MTN uses close to 2500 towers with 86% being owned by American Tower and 14% by the other towercos in the market. MTN has aggressive rollout plans to bring latest the technologies to its customers.
TowerXchange: In Ghana, MTN have entered into a joint venture with American Tower to manage their towers - what can you tell us about the nature of the relationship and how it is managed?
Ibrahim Misto, General Manager, Network Operations, MTN:
American Tower is a strategic partner to MTN. MTN’s feedback to American Tower about their services helps them assess and choose the right solutions and select the suitable and competent service providers on sites that can achieve the SLAs.
MTN and American Tower’s team engage regularly in formal meetings and we have daily and weekly meetings to review operational performance.
In addition, we have joint monthly meetings with American Tower and other managed service partners who are overseeing the active infrastructure. This enables us to review the end to end operational performance of the services delivered to MTN which is dependent on the collaboration of both active and passive managed service partners.
We also hold an annual joint workshop to review our power performance scorecard, and align the strategies for power savings, site security initiatives and future power initiatives along with other key strategic topics.
TowerXchange: How do you manage the relationships with other tower companies in the market and do you see any differences in the strengths/ weaknesses of the different towercos in the market?
Ibrahim Misto, General Manager, Network Operations, MTN:
The footprint of the different towercos in the market varies, with American Tower dominating the market share. With Eaton acquiring Airtel’s towers, this gives them a larger footprint across the country, and this will help operators benefit from competitive and lower pricing.
We have seen improvements in the SLA fulfillment of towercos, and we look forward to continuous improvement to enable us to keep delivering a distinct customer experience to our customers.
One of the critical areas towercos should be improving on is the ability to drive new site acquisition in a timely manner, in order not to delay operators’ rollout. More is expected from the towercos in the area of smart site innovative solutions accompanied with smart power solutions for such sites.
TowerXchange: How are discussions surrounding the management of passive infrastructure integrated into the management of active infrastructure and what benefits has this brought to the business?
Ibrahim Misto, General Manager, Network Operations, MTN:
Integration is a must to achieve enhanced network quality and customer experience. Managing passive and active in silos will fuel conflicts between parties handling the different infrastructure and will lead to a blame game.
One of the best practices we have implemented in MTN Ghana is establishing a joint governance steerco attended by the MTN senior management team and both active and passive managed service partners where common objectives, dependencies and risks are regularly reviewed and mitigations put in place to drive continuous improvement.
One of the best practices we have implemented in MTN Ghana is establishing a joint governance steerco attended by the MTN senior management team and both active and passive managed service partners where common objectives, dependencies and risks are regularly reviewed and mitigations put in place to drive continuous improvement
TowerXchange: Please can you explain the process by which you set SLAs/ KPIs and how they are implemented to get the best performance out of your partners?
Ibrahim Misto, General Manager, Network Operations, MTN:
SLA/KPIs undergo annual reviews in line with our business objectives. We don’t base targets simply on a wish list but rather set them accompanied with clear action plans of new and innovative operational strategies to achieve the set target.
On top of that, a clear investment strategy of the passive infrastructure should be committed and made available by the towerco giving us assurance to fulfill the reviewed SLA. The intention of an SLA review is not to collect penalties in the case of SLA non-fulfillment; it is rather to drive focus and improvement.
TowerXchange: What upgrade projects have been recently completed and how have these impacted on SLAs? How was the decision reached to carry out these upgrades and are any further upgrades planned/ under consideration?
Ibrahim Misto, General Manager, Network Operations, MTN:
One of MTN’s strategic objectives is to provide a distinct customer experience.
In this regard, we worked with our towerco partners to modernise passive infrastructure by deploying a modular approach for varied power solutions that allow MTN the highest service availability per site in a structure that can be tailored to suit the unique requirements of different sites within the network. American Tower have deployed the modernised power solution for us on over 800 sites in the past two years.
We have also had remote site monitoring systems installed on all sites which has enhanced pro-activeness and improved SLAs.
Another collaborative initiative was the introduction of real time smart site access control on sites which helped in significantly reducing asset theft incidents.
TowerXchange: How has the site uptime changed since outsourcing to American Tower?
Ibrahim Misto, General Manager, Network Operations, MTN:
Power availability has improved since outsourcing to American Tower. Operationally American Tower is attacking the most dominating root causes one by one, and this has improved the service delivered. They have also invested in modernising the passive infrastructure and have introduced innovative solutions which have enabled them to improve the site uptime.
TowerXchange: Finally, you were involved in MTN’s first tower outsourcing process in Ghana and have acted in an advisory capacity for subsequent transactions in other markets - some sale and leaseback transactions and others joint ventures - what lessons have been learnt along the way?
Ibrahim Misto, General Manager, Network Operations, MTN:
I was part of the team which established the operational elements around selling towers, eventually resulting in MTN’s towers in Ghana moving into a joint venture with American Tower. I supported the MTN Group in rolling out the towerco model in Africa, leveraging the lessons learned from Ghana which was the first to adopt the model.
Operators are advised to design the SLA in a reward and penalty scheme, and to opt for SLA per site and per site priority rather than average SLA. A clear investment strategy by the towerco should be committed to and made available to the operator which can help guarantee the fulfillment of the agreed reviewed SLA.
In order to avoid the operator’s opex from spiralling out of control, operators are advised to impose a cap on the annual CPI increase affecting the site rental payments and other fees, especially in markets with fluctuating economies.
Ibrahim Misto will be joining leaders of the MEA tower industry at the upcoming TowerXchange Meetup Africa & Middle East on 19-20 October 2016 at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
