Following a change to its membership criteria the European Wireless Infrastructure Association (EWIA) has announced the admission of INWIT and Vantage Towers as new members. The second and sixth largest towercos in the EU had been previously ineligible for membership due to their partial ownership by mobile operators.
New approach, new members
The EWIA is Europe's towerco trade association and is a well-established presence in Europe with nine members operating across sixteen European countries. Now including INWIT and Vantage Towers, the EWIA's members have invested and operate over €100bn of wireless infrastructure assets globally and operate a portfolio of over 195,000 assets in Europe.
The development of the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA) has prompted widespread discussion on how telecom tower operators should be regulated and what assistance is appropriate to ease barriers to investment and overcome planning hurdles. The EWIA advocates policies that facilitate and encourage network infrastructure investment and deployment with the goal of making advanced wireless broadband available everywhere, and is now coordinating the interests of independent towercos and operator-backed towercos.
Vantage Towers and INWIT both joined the trade association on 1 October. Marco Patuano, Chairman of EWIA said the EWIA welcomes “INWIT and Vantage Towers as our newest members, who will contribute to EWIA’s mission to tackle the hurdles to mobile infrastructure deployments and to foster an investor-friendly environment to help fulfilling Europe’s digital ambitions.” The addition of two new members will strength the EWIA's hand in Brussels, he added.
The GIA will impact towercos immensely and will pull towercos into telecommunication regulation more closely than in the other region's TowerXchange covers. Any additional price regulation that could surge in the upcoming review of the European Electronics Communication Code (EECC) in 2025 and the Digital Networks Act (DNA), are likely to be strongly resisted by towercos, which typically face no price regulation. However towercos and the EWIA will continue advocating for easier permitting and more protection from lease aggregators, more efficient EMF radiation rules.
Christian Hillabrant, CEO of Vantage Towers brought the towerco into the EWIA to help accelerate investment in rural areas and transport corridors, something particularly important given Vantage Towers's pan-European scale: “Together, we will create a more connected, inclusive, and greener future for all in a more competitive Europe.” he stated. “As the leading tower company in Italy and one of the main players in the wireless infrastructure industry in Europe, we are pleased to contribute to EWIA in representing the tower sector in the European debate,” said Oscar Cicchetti, Chairman of INWIT.
