Telecom infrastructure sharing helps op­erators optimise investments and im­prove margins, in turn, allowing them to focus on increasing their service coverage and capacity. Countries in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, Cam­bo­dia, Myan­mar, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singa­pore are actively adopting this practice of sharing/leasing towers in order to optimise costs while expanding their networks. It promotes the efficient use of physical infrastructure by avoiding duplication, besides saving precious natural resources. A snapshot of current telecom infrastructure and sharing practices across select Southeast Asian markets…

Malaysia

The Malaysian telecom industry has a total of 22,802 telecom towers, of which nearly 64 per cent are owned by pure play towercos such as edotco, YTL, Naza Com­munications, OCK, Omnix and several state-backed towercos. The three mobile network operators (MNOs) – DiGi, Maxis and Telekom Malaysia – also own a significant number of towers in Malaysia. The country has approximately 2,000 mobile subscribers per tower. The government encourages infrastructure sharing amongst service providers. Any site in Malaysia can be shared, subject to the availability of physical space and structural integrity of the aesthetic structure. DiGi has recently collaborated with edotco for new base transceiver station (BTS) sites and co-location. Malaysia’s Universal Service Provision Fund is being used to set up 2,000 rural sites in order to expand coverage in rural areas.

Indonesia

The country had approximately 91,728 to­wers at the end of 2017. The tower market in Indonesia is dominated by three major towercos – Protelindo, Tower Bersama and STP. Other players such as IBS Tower, PT Komet Infra Nusantara (KIN), Bali­tower, Centratama Telekomunikasi and Persada Sokka Tama also own towers in the country. Telecom service providers such as Telkom and Telkomsel, Indosat and XL have a significant tower footprint as well. The tenancy ratio for Protelindo was 1.68 in the last quarter of 2017, while Tower Bersama had an even higher ratio of 1.71 during the same period. Towercos in the country typically add 3,000 to 5,000 towers (ground-based, rooftops and infill sites) and about 0.13 tenancies per tower  in a year. Towercos also offer fibre, microcell poles, in-building solutions (IBS) and nano-sites along with traditional ground-based towers. The tower market in Indo­nesia has seen rapid consolidation and new entrants in the recent past. Protelindo recently entered into a deal with Provi­dence (KIN) to buy 1,400 of its towers at a price of $72,700 per tower. IBS Towers also signed a deal with STI, which involved the buying and leasing back of 371 towers from STI.

Cambodia

Cambodia is an emerging tower market with enormous potential and opportunities. With over 100 per cent mobile penetration and an exponential increase in data consumption, stiff competition exists amongst the six mobile network operators currently operating in the market. There are approximately 9,200 towers in Cambo­dia , which are owned by towercos and MNOs. Towercos such as OCK, Viettel, Camtowerlink and edotco are wellestablished in the country. Edotco directly owns and operates approximately 2,100 towers in Cambodia and plans to build 200 to 250 towers per year for the next three years. Apart from this, Smart Axiata owns 251 towers, Metfone owns 64 towers and Cell­card owns 52 towers. As a result of overcrowding in the market, the tower sharing model is becoming more and more attractive for operators.

Myanmar

The telecom market in Myanmar was liberalised only as recently as 2013, post which Qatar-based Ooredoo and the Norwegian Telenor Group entered the market in 2014. The competition amongst the two mobile network operators and the state-owned Myanma Posts & Telecom­mu­ni­cations (MPT) drove tariffs down and led to a speedy growth in subscribers along with the expansion of the country’s tower infrastructure. Both operators adopted the tower-leasing model during their service roll-out. Mytel, which is the fourth and most recent operator to have entered Myanmar’s telecom market, will also use a model of co-location with towercos and MNOs, in addition to rolling out its own BTS and towers. With Mytel’s service roll-out, the tenancy ratio in Myanmar, which is around 1.6 to 1.8 at present, is expected to increase to 2.

The way forward

Tower sharing helps reduce the cost of network operations and enables operators to achieve greater market coverage more effectively by avoiding a duplication of costs. With major telcos across the South­east Asia region expected to roll out 5G services in a few years, mobile network infrastructure sharing will emerge as one of the key trends to ensure faster and larger service roll-out.