TowerXchange Meetup Europe’s ‘Towers of the Future’ panel brought together industry leaders to discuss how towercos are thinking about tower design, additional services and monetisation opportunities, and digitalisation.
These conversations shed light on how towercos and suppliers are adapting to meet the evolving needs of existing customers, expanding to new customer bases, and meeting the demands of the digital transformation of society.
Towercos need to utilise the latest advancements in IoT to become faster, efficient and smarter
The traditional towerco model, rooted in passive infrastructure colocation, has served as a sturdy foundation for industry growth. However, as technology continues to advance, towercos are reimagining their role beyond core tower infrastructure lease providers.
Andrea Mondo, Technology & Operations Director for INWIT described this shift as 'towers-as-a-service,' emphasising the necessity of catering to a broader range of industries and customer MNOs.
The advent of 5G technology has been a catalyst for industry expansion, driving the need for enhanced connectivity and network densification. Towercos discussed how they are leveraging advanced data and IoT systems to optimise tower management and efficiency.
For instance, INWIT shared insights into deploying IoT platforms for comprehensive infrastructure control, enabling value-added services beyond the passive neutral host model.
These digital solutions that gather, process and analyse vast amounts of site data, from power consumption to site access climate control, offer additional value-add data services that can be used by governmental bodies, public administrations, and utility companies.
Jean-Claude Geha, CTO of Vantage Towers, saw that by harnessing predictive maintenance capabilities, they could not only improve operational efficiencies but also enhance safety and unlock new revenue streams in data analytics.
Towercos have also embraced digital twin technology, with Darren Long, Senior Director of Operations for Europe at Phoenix Tower International, stating that 90% of their European sites have been digitally twinned, facilitating rapid decision-making and proactive issue identification.
Having the ability to quickly assess available space on each site and understand site loads without needing to physically visit the site not only saves costs and reduces worker risk, but means towercos can more rapidly lease up new customers, which is critical to remaining competitive.
Darren described this as the tower of the future, one that is fundamentally the same but can utilise digitalisation to be faster and more agile in site location, selection and deployment.
Existing data can be monetised for additional revenue streams
Data gathered via IoT platforms can prove valuable to other companies, institutions and civilians beyond purely internal use. Towercos are now gathering vast amounts of real-time data using IoT and are starting to embrace of AI-based predictive maintenance to enhance this further.
Andrea Mondo explained that with a dense network of around one tower every three kilometers, the towerco has deployed an IoT platform to act as a full controller over their infrastructure for site access, alarms, power configuration and site conditioning.
It was suggested this could be monetised beyond its internal use, selling data services to governments, public administrations and utility companies. This could take a variety of different forms, such as weather forecasting that is used to predict risks from extreme weather conditions which could be used by government weather surveillance bodies.
While implementation seems premature, some early pilots for this are taking place now with real expectations that this could be expanded on.
From passive infrastructure hosting to towers-as-a-service
Beyond monetising the data that is collected, towercos are also exploring how the tower itself can be monetised beyond the core natural host model.
Remo Ricci Chief Strategy Officer for Calzavara, used the term ‘towers-as-a-service' to describe how towers can be used to host a variety of additional infrastructure and equipment on site, such as advertisement boards, edge data centres, CCTV cameras, traffic management systems and drone nests.
Towers have much of the backhaul systems needed to host these services, with grid and backup power connectivity, fiberisation, leased land space, elevation above street level and high rates of urban points of presence.
More equipment means more pressure on tower loads
However, the increase in equipment loading from existing and new customers poses physical challenges to tower loading that towercos must be aware of when assessing tower design.
Vantage Towers has implemented a zoning system to identify levels of wind exposure, helping select the correct site design to manage both equipment and wind loads.
This ensures towers are neither over-designed leading to wasted capex in building materials, while also ensuring high-value or more exposed sites are built to correct engineering standards.
Towercos also need to look at site design standardisation, particularly those with multi-country footprints and opcos which can have different practices depending on the market or region.
Standardisation of tower design practice and selection can help simplify the deployment of new sites and further speeds up that critical lease time to remain competitive to MNOs while keeping up with the ability to scale quickly when needed.
Digitalisation remains paramount in expediting lease-up processes and facilitating faster deployment of infrastructure upgrades.
As the industry marches toward a future defined by 5G proliferation and urban densification, towercos are embracing smarter designs and sustainable materials like fiberglass and wood to improve environmental footprints.
Furthermore, there is a growing emphasis on site beautification and efficient space utilisation, particularly in densely populated urban areas.
Towercos are exploring modular designs and multi-tenant systems to maximise space efficiency while fostering positive landlord relationships through camouflage solutions and lightweight materials.
In many countries in Europe, building owners and local municipalities place high priority on aesthetics, especially with the restrictive regulation that protects the appearance of many historical European villages, towns and cities.
If towercos want to deploy sites quickly and keep positive relationships with customers, landlords and regulators, towers need to blend into local architecture.
