The formation of an independent infrastructure player in the Namibian telecoms sector

PowerCom, owned by MNO Telecom Namibia, is Namibia’s first dedicated infrastructure player. Managing a portfolio of 300 towers, the company has ambitions to integrate further assets into its portfolio and in the long term plans to bring solar to its sites to make use of the country’s abundant sunshine. At an exciting time for the Namibian market, with the regulator planning changes to its infrastructure sharing regulations, we speak to PowerCom’s CEO Alisa Amupolo.

TowerXchange: Please can you provide an introduction to yourself and your background in the telecoms sector.

I am a millennial leader on path to fulfilling my potential in the communications industry by doing my bit to leave the world a better connected than I found it. At the moment, I am finding joy in leading PowerCom’s transformation from a towerco to a fully-fledged infraco that is value adding to both passive and active infrastructures at every price point, whilst maintaining shareholders value with maximum returns.

Prior to that I have served as a Non-Executive Director at MTC for nearly 3 years, the largest mobile operator in Namibia and during my tenure over a billion was invested in network upgrade including commissioning of new towers and it has given great industry insight from a commercial point of view.

Before joining the MTC Board I was the Strategic Advisor and Transformation Project Manager for the NCC and CRAN respectively and was overseeing the sector reform from the old regulatory dispensation to a new regime.

My role primarily revolved around the establishment of a fully-fledged regulatory body that is driving the industry growth and hence worked with the Board of Directors for both entities up until the NCC become defunct. During that period, we saw a shift to a technology and service neutral licensing regime which brought on par all industry players which opened up the market to new players.

I also went on to venture into tech startups from the front end of the market value chain particularly in digital solutions and realised the gap and value for quality infrastructure for such solutions to piggyback on. This was the departure point for joining PowerCom as CEO to focus on the back end of the value chain namely infrastructures.

TowerXchange: Please can you explain who PowerCom are and how the company came into existence

PowerCom was established in 2007 and began trading as Cell One, it was later acquired by a new shareholder and rebranded its trading name to LEO. In 2013, it began trading as TN mobile after its 100% acquisition by Telecom Namibia Group and in the same year sold its mobile license to Telecom Namibia and in return purchased all the tower infrastructure and consolidated it in its portfolio.

Today the principle nature of PowerCom’s business is ICT infrastructure and equipment provision serving ICT industry players of which the core business is currently leasing space on our telecommunications towers.

Our clientele is made up of its shareholder Telecom Namibia, MTC, Paratus Telecom, NBC, Multichoice, One Africa TV, Africa online and nearly many radio stations. PowerCom also service other players in a transmission place requiring infrastructures ranging from the rail to the aviation industry and security to mention but a few.

TowerXchange: What can you tell us about the portfolio of towers that PowerCom owns and manages as well as details on the tenants?

We currently own a portfolio of just over 300 towers, of these 102 were originally built and owned by Leo dating back to 2007 when the company started deploying our network. Following Leo’s takeover by Telecom Namibia we then bought Telecom Namibia’s 198 towers and consolidated these into our portfolio. In addition to the tower assets, we also have a number of rooftop sites in our portfolio and have added on new sites since acquisition. We are looking at decommissioning the few sites that were duplicated when both entities were operating separately and redeploying them to un-serviced areas as new revenue streams.

Whilst we are owned by Telecom Namibia Group we strive to act as an impartial infrastructure provider servicing all industry players and create value for operators in leasing our infrastructure as opposed to deploying their own network infrastructures resulting in capex and opex savings.

We have all three telecommunications operators in the market leasing space on our towers including our mother company which has a mobile division TN mobile and the largest operator MTC which also has its own tower investment for self-use and is currently the largest tower holder in the market. The third operator is Paratus which transformed into a fully-fledged telco operator after obtaining a class comprehensive license in the market following the adoption of service and technology neutral licenses alluded to earlier.

We are also serving nearly all radio stations in the market and the aviation authority, national rail and embassies and mines. There has been growing demand across the board and it is part of our strategy to drive optimum tower usage in recouping the return on our investments.

TowerXchange: Do MTC and Paratus own similar infrastructure companies to PowerCom? How are the remaining towers in the Namibian market managed? 

Neither MTC or Paratus have dedicated passive infrastructure companies, I am only aware of MTC towers which as any other mobile entity in an emerging market like Namibia would, are self-providing and managed as part of their core network team. However PowerCom really have been the sole entity with a focused strategy on securing co-locations to host other operators on their towers since we became a dedicated infrastructure provider.

PowerCom’s long term view is to consolidate other third parties’ assets in its portfolio and was established with that goal in mind, however we are also positioning ourselves to manage towers owned by other entities in the market that are not yet under our portfolio in the medium to long term.

We are repositioning PowerCom and even for infrastructure not under our portfolio, we would be the trusted and accredited entity that could facilitate infrastructure sharing while pursuing consolidation at the same time. When it comes to securing tenancies in the market the current status quo is a mixture of going to PowerCom and to the mother company directly and we have since positioned PowerCom as the one stop centre for all tower needs in the market.

Namibia as a whole is looking at 100% network coverage, which was announced by the Minister of ICT as part of his performance indicators and Harambee Prosperity Plan, which may potentially result in a plug and play model. We are looking at policy makers’ vision of how the management of Namibia’s telecoms infrastructure undertaken be going forward from a National point of view.

TowerXchange: Please can you tell us about these major changes on the horizon and the motivations behind them.

The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia proposed a new regulation pertaining to mandatory infrastructure sharing where operators will no longer be allowed to set up new parallel infrastructure. We are excited about this imminent mandatory infrastructure sharing regulation and expect the regulator to gazette it soon, as it presents PowerCom with an even more unique opportunity.

They have also introduced a network facility license category under its class licenses to regulate the infrastructure provider.

Further as Namibia’s national broadcaster completed the digital migration process, a lot of their infrastructure became redundant and PowerCom is also eyeing opportunity for consolidation at this level.

TowerXchange: Speaking of business as usual, can you share with us details on PowerCom’s operations - does energy represent a particular challenge in the Namibian market as it does in many other sub-Saharan African countries?

Most of our sites are on grid, backed up by generators however we also have solar powered sites; the energy crisis across the whole of Southern Africa means powering sites solely through the grid is not sustainable. Whilst there are plans to connect new power plants to the grid, these are all long term plans and so there are concerns surrounding power risks. In the long run we want PowerCom assets to be using alternative energy sources on top of grid for business continuity purposes; as a country with abundant sun, solar is a natural option.

TowerXchange: Are all of your sites fitted with remote monitoring and site management systems and how have you factored in the potential takeover of Namibia’s full tower portfolio into these?

The group has a robust ERP system and NOC in place but it won’t necessarily cater for our needs should PowerCom assume responsibility for the entire country’s towers. We are looking at the long term strategy for PowerCom and are awaiting our Board approval on how best we can create a robust ecosystem and an enduring entity.

TowerXchange: When it comes to managing the operations and maintenance of PowerCom’s towers, what capabilities do you have in house and what do you outsource?

Telecom Namibia Group had a passive infrastructure department in place prior to our consolidation, so we have technical support from the mother company, while we also have dedicated site acquisition staff. We also outsource work to subcontractors, for example the EIA phase of our towers.

In PowerCom’s opinion it is more efficient to outsource than it is to retain 100% control of your own value chain. It is better to focus on your core business strategy and outsource the maintenance and nitty gritty work to a third party whilst maintaining a birds-eye view over everything and also empowering entrepreneurs.