Telcos to save $10-B opex from infra sharing
Published Jun 18, 2023 11:13 am
Infrastructure sharing will slash the capital and operating expenditure of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) by up to $10 billion, according to tower company EDOTCO Philippines.
For consumers, this translates to cumulative savings of up to $67 billion, in addition to reducing 17 million metric tonnes of carbon footprint.
Specifically, "We estimate tower sharing saves between 20 to 30 percent OPEX versus non-shared towers," the company told Manila Bulletin.
EDOTCO currently operates about 3,000 towers in the country, making it the Philippines' largest tower company.
As a whole, the EDOTCO group has a portfoliooperates of more than 54,000 towers in nine markets, from the Philippines to Malaysia, Bangladesh, , Indonesia, Cambodia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Laos. It and strongly advocates tower sharing for MNOs for faster network rollout. “One of the biggest challenges in providing reliable digital connectivity is proper planning on the placement of infrastructure that is time and cost-efficient," says Suraj Narayanan, EDOTCO Philippines’ Country Managing Director.
"Infrastructure sharing is the way forward as it will drive holistic telecommunications evolution. EDOTCO’s role is to make next-generation connectivity universally accessible in order to help nations and societies transform digitally, economically and socially,” he elaborated.
“As of 2022, The Philippines recorded close to 90 million internet users with 72.7 percent internet penetration. We are optimistic about the Philippines’ encouraging connectivity development." "However, studies show that approximately 15 percent of telecommunication towers throughout the country are overlapping, leading to the duplication of resources and structural inefficiencies," Suraj pointed out.
As such, beyond increasing the number of towers to meet the growing demand, it will be more efficient to look at decreasing the number of overlapped sites through infrastructure sharing.
"Considering this, EDOTCO is poised to introduce innovative solutions and invest in upgrades that will support faster, better and more cost-efficient shared network infrastructure throughout the country,” according to Suraj.
For consumers, this translates to cumulative savings of up to $67 billion, in addition to reducing 17 million metric tonnes of carbon footprint.
Specifically, "We estimate tower sharing saves between 20 to 30 percent OPEX versus non-shared towers," the company told Manila Bulletin.
EDOTCO currently operates about 3,000 towers in the country, making it the Philippines' largest tower company.
As a whole, the EDOTCO group has a portfoliooperates of more than 54,000 towers in nine markets, from the Philippines to Malaysia, Bangladesh, , Indonesia, Cambodia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Laos. It and strongly advocates tower sharing for MNOs for faster network rollout. “One of the biggest challenges in providing reliable digital connectivity is proper planning on the placement of infrastructure that is time and cost-efficient," says Suraj Narayanan, EDOTCO Philippines’ Country Managing Director.
"Infrastructure sharing is the way forward as it will drive holistic telecommunications evolution. EDOTCO’s role is to make next-generation connectivity universally accessible in order to help nations and societies transform digitally, economically and socially,” he elaborated.
“As of 2022, The Philippines recorded close to 90 million internet users with 72.7 percent internet penetration. We are optimistic about the Philippines’ encouraging connectivity development." "However, studies show that approximately 15 percent of telecommunication towers throughout the country are overlapping, leading to the duplication of resources and structural inefficiencies," Suraj pointed out.
As such, beyond increasing the number of towers to meet the growing demand, it will be more efficient to look at decreasing the number of overlapped sites through infrastructure sharing.
"Considering this, EDOTCO is poised to introduce innovative solutions and invest in upgrades that will support faster, better and more cost-efficient shared network infrastructure throughout the country,” according to Suraj.