BENEFITS OF TOWER COMPANIES IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY
In my vast experience in the telecommunication world I have been privileged to work for telecommunication operators as well as a tower company. The concept of a tower company is similar to that of a landlord with multiple tenants. The tower company leases vertical space on the tower and portions on the ground for multiple telecommunication operators (tenants) for their communications equipment. The tower company provides a tower where operators can share tower space and the different operation and maintenance. Reminds me of my college days when we would team up with a bunch of friends and rent a big 4-bedroom house with great amenities for the same price as what we would have paid in a crumpled-up college hostel. The benefits enjoyed were uncountable.
- Benefits To Tenants (Telecommunication Operators)
The Landlord incurs the cost of building the house thus the tenants would save on CapEx and in turn allow more money to invest on enhancing infrastructure; reinvest in active equipment, customer service and other co-activities.
Tenants can save on high OpEx associated with running telecom infrastructure such as site rentals and energy costs that will be shared by multiple service providers, while enhancing focus on service innovations.
The tenants is able to focus on core operations thus adopt a customer-centric approach as the landlord takes care of the stress of infrastructure operations & maintenance challenges.
The Landlord takes care of the headache of building towers where there is no coverage thus the tenant gets an opportunity to expand coverage by setting up connectivity infrastructure in such areas.
Stable long-term assets: Tenants will have a demand for towers and network assets as long as they provide wireless mobile services, thus ensuring stable demand from our customers.
Since the Landlord is neutral, the tower is open to multiple operators who are in turn confident of acquiring services without discrimination.
2. POSITIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Tower sharing ensures reduced energy consumption as the landlord strives to reduce OpEx by using as minimal energy as possible so as to generate maximum profits. This in turn helps reduce the burden on power and grid, and most notably on fuel consumption and generators required to sustain independent dedicated networks.
Instead of each operator building their own towers, the landlord towers serve all, thereby reducing the environmental impact of expansion.
3. Benefits to the Telecommunication Regulator
The model ensures tenants enjoy reduced OpEx and CapEx leading to reduced service costs. This promotes the regulator’s objective to promote availability of affordable services for customers, fair competition and incentives for innovation.
The landlord always looks for opportunities where there is no network coverage so as to get tenants thus the model supports universal access initiatives as the it encourages coverage expansion into rural areas.
