Formerly known as Premium Radius, Naza Communications is part of privately-held Naza Group in Malaysia. Started in 2014 and currently with a staff of 25, the towerco is positioning itself to be more than just a site-based asset provider to the mobile network operators in the country. With a diverse suite of offerings, it is looking to support MNO priorities and new technologies while balancing costs, speed of deployment, and commercially viable business models. All the while, it is actively contributing to the Eleventh Malaysia Plan 2016-2020 through its NURI Programme to empower rural communities and digital literacy.
TowerXchange: Please introduce yourself and your company.
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
I have held various positions within the Naza Group for the last seven years. For the past five years I have been mainly focusing my efforts within the group on strategy and organisational development. As a group, we had earlier embarked on the idea of penetrating the telecommunications market. I had worked on the idea since its inception and as such I took the leadership role when Naza Communications was established.
Within Naza Communications my main focus is developing a world-class organisation with internal capabilities in our key focus areas. We are extremely driven by creating value and want to differentiate ourselves as a market leader.
We have been in the industry for under three years, specialising in providing integrated telecommunications infrastructure services to some of Malaysia’s leading telco companies.
Naza Communications is licensed under Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
TowerXchange: How does Naza Communications fit into the existing telecommunications ecosystem in Malaysia?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
We are growing fast to be a leading integrated telecommunications infrastructure service provider in the country, working closely with the government and telco providers. A large number of our competitors have been in the market for around 15 years, and we are honoured to be servicing the industry alongside them. We have a lot to learn from them, however we see ourselves addressing markets needs from a different capacity.
We see our position as more of an holistic provider then a pure site-based asset provider. We have been exploring and creating a diverse range of products, from infrastructure build to RAN sharing. Naza Communications is moving away from the traditional mould of a towerco and we see ourselves reinventing the industry. The telco industry is ever-changing and with this change comes new challenges and hurdles.
We have noticed that the current market is heavily focused towards standard passive infrastructure leasing. We believe that this segment of the industry has already peaked and we expect little growth from this segment. Naza Communications is concentrating its efforts and heavily investing in what we believe will be the next generation of telecommunications network infrastructure.
We are investing heavily in RAN sharing solutions, and upgrading our capability to be able to address the market. That being said, we are also aware of the technology limitations and will need to wait for the market to be ready before we can present our solutions. We have noticed a number of players before us who failed, primarily because of an incomplete solutions offering, as well as network operators who were not ready to embark on such engagements.
We have also set our sights on providing telecommunications infrastructure to non-traditional wireless clients. We believe we are the first provider to start offering an enterprise solution. Telecommunications technology is becoming more open, and the industry will start seeing the participation of non-network operators emerging as service providers for their own individual or group needs. We are the pioneers in this and have already secured a sizeable number of enterprise clients who want to embark on providing their own networks for internal usage.
It is an interesting time, and our stance is that conventional tower leasing is just a precursor into Naza Communications’ actual plans for the industry. We are in progress to be one of the most unconventional, disruptive providers in this segment and are excited on the possibilities which we see in our horizon.
TowerXchange: Many towercos see RAN sharing as a threat, not as an opportunity. How will Naza Communications be able to adapt the business model to create a win-win scenario?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
Inevitably RAN sharing will result in towercos loosing revenue. So will network virtualisation, reduction of equipment size and a whole host of other factors which will contribute to a decline in revenue. That being said, we plan to aggressively move into the RAN sharing space and turn this threat into an asset. We have developed an innovative business model which allows the operators to reduce their operational costs whilst not hitting our bottom line.
TowerXchange: That sounds very interesting. So what is included in your current network then?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
We own approximately 350 structures in different parts of the country which is a mix of passive and active assets for a large number of telco and non-telco clients. Out of that, we have close to 300 cell sites, which is a combination of towers and micro cell sites.
Our coverage is nationwide, with roughly 85% of the sites in urban areas.
We do have a small number of small cell sites that are rolled out through the build to suit (BTS) model. Most Malaysian operators are fairly well connected in terms of 4G and are planning for the next wave of 5G. However, this is still in trials, so there are a lot of conversations right now around the best model for deployment. Cost will always be a factor, along with speed of deployment.
So we are involved with a wide range of solutions, including marco and micro towers, IBS, DAS, and small cells. At the end of the day, we are a telecoms infrastructure provider, as such our value offering is to provide to our customers with a wide range of engineering solutions. We have the expertise to design, build and manage any form of telecommunications infrastructure. We are also at present investing heavily in developing our in-house design capability.
TowerXchange: Have you made any acquisitions to date? In other words, how has your growth come about?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
Everything has been organic to date, through the establishment of close working relationships with government agencies, regulators, and operators. We do have an aggressive expansion plan. We are actively looking to increase our footprint outside Malaysia, however we are ever-mindful of the challenges that regional expansion presents and our internal strategies are crafted accordingly.
TowerXchange: What do you see as some of the main challenges in building a network/tower in Malaysia?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
I believe the challenges which we face in Malaysia are probably similar or better than some of the challenges network owners face abroad. Malaysia is generally an early adopter of technology, as such our policies and frameworks are relatively up to date. We have a close working relationship with the regulators and government agencies which provides us with better visibility on where things are and what is to come.
The standard challenges are still there, in terms of deployment speed, falling prices, increasing costs and so on. I would like to believe that this is business as usual.
On a personal level, the biggest challenge I feel would be to anticipate the strategic direction the entire telecommunications industry is taking, and specifically where networks are heading with more cloud based and virtualisation. I look at that as my priority in ensuring that our direction as a company is in line with where the industry is headed, which is not always an easy task as the industry is headed in multiple directions, sometimes in opposite directions, and all at the same time!
Key goals of the of NURI Programme:
- Raising Internet literacy, income and opportunities of selected rural communities by enabling them to participate in the mobile economy.
- Utilising mobile applications in assisting the transformation of rural areas to uplift the wellbeing of rural communities.
- Promoting lifelong learning for skills enhancement through responsible use of the Internet.
TowerXchange: What about some of the operational challenges?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
The key challenge we face is trying to bring down our operational costs. Opex is a key driver of site costs. We are actively trying to reduce this so that we can pass some of these savings across to our customers.
When it comes to power, the electricity network is very extensive in Malaysia. As such almost all sites eventually become on-grid with a small minority being powered by alternative sources.
TowerXchange: How would you describe the typical site design and typology for rural compared with urban sites in the country?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
Urban sites in Malaysia are mainly capacity-driven as such we see a lot of smaller, more compact structures being in demand. That being said, we also see that the massive towers in rural areas are also not preferred with customers opting for more medium-sized structures.
TowerXchange: Are you involved with fibre?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
The MNOs and fixed line operators play a major role here. However, the main challenge for urban sites is getting the last mile in, whereby the right of way is always a challenge. We have customized solutions for this.
TowerXchange: How would you describe the current MNO/telecom landscape right now in Malaysia? What have been some key developments for the year and what’s to come?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
The market will be exciting, it always has been, with new technologies and service offerings happening every four to five years. This will carry on for at least the foreseeable near future. In the closest horizon is the implementation of 5G which a lot of parties are currently evaluating at the trial stage.
There is also a lot of movement for the application side which we see is really driving not only usage but also a demand for good coverage.
TowerXchange: Lastly, Naza Communications signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a group of partners for what is being referred to as the NURI Programme. Can you tell us more about that?
Subhash Deven, Chief Operating Officer, Naza Communications:
The NURI Programme is a rural empowerment initiative, in line with Naza Corporation Holdings’ leadership role in accordance with the 11th Malaysia Plan for industry champions to share the responsibility in spearheading the nation’s growth and transformation.
The programme aims to cultivate one of the six strategic thrusts of *RMK11 (Rancangan Malaysia Kesebelas, Eleventh Malaysia Plan 2016-2020) which is “Accelerating Human Capital Development for an Advanced Nation.” Most importantly, we want to play a pivotal role in being the first towerco to raise Internet literacy, income and opportunities of selected rural communities by enabling the them to participate in the mobile economy.
Through our various partners, Malaysian app developers Car Bengkel, Ezyhaul, Living Space, My Homestay Malaysia and the Telecommunications Engineering College (TEC), we will deliver workshops, training sessions, informal engagements, and so on.
At present around 200 villages have been identified mainly in the Northern and Eastern regions of Peninsula Malaysia and East Malaysia. The programme will be rolled out in three phases across a 36-month plan .
