edotco Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Axiata aims to grow its market share in Malaysia to 20% next year.
edotco’s current market share of the telecommunication infrastructure in Malaysia is about 16%-17% (edotco has about 3,600 towers in Malaysia. There is an estimated total 22,000 towers in Malaysia).
According to Suresh Sidhu, Chief Executive Officer of edotco Group (picture), “It cost over RM300,000 (easily) to a build a tower in Malaysia” and edotco intends build to more sites in Malaysia. He said that Celcom Axiata is one of the biggest customers in Malaysia and edotco is also getting orders from “other parties” such as U Mobile.
edotco provides end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector including co-locations, build-to-suit, energy, transmission and operations and maintenance (O&M) in the region of Asia. It has a portfolio of over 15,000 towers in its countries of operation: Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Pakistan. Upon completion of the Myanmar Tower Company (MTC) deal, edotco will have approximately 16,200 towers across the region.
Moving forward in Malaysia, Build-To-Suit (BTS) hotel is one of the solution that edotco will focus to improve in-building coverage. BTS hotel is a solution where telecommunication equipment are housed in one site – sharing passive infrastructure and antenna systems, reducing footprint and enhancing coverage. It is a unique concept that helps in providing connectivity at locations where setting up towers is not permitted due to various security, regulatory and space constraints, for example in places like Cyberjaya, Putrajaya, and Nusajaya.
BTS hotel promotes efficient use of assets/infrastructure, reduce cost and enable the mobile network operators to provide better connectivity. The first BTS hotel will be deployed in the next one to two months. Currently, edotco is also working with a developer on installing 20 BTS sites. The announcement on this will be made soon, it said.
edotco is also focusing on echo remote monitoring and management system, a next generation solution that automates and optimizes operational processes, performance and visibility 24×7. edotco has rolled out echo on over 5,000 sites within its markets. This system reduces manpower hours on the site and efficiently manages issues remotely from the echo centre. The regional towerco targets to implement echo in all its sites within the next 18 to 24 months.
Meanwhile, edotco is rolling out new “telecommunication towers” in the form of billboards, flagpoles, clock towers, minarets or water tanks where antennae can be mounted. These special structures will serve two or more purposes, are eco-friendly and will harmonize with the skyline in particular in urban areas.
The group has set an aggressive target to be the benchmark company for (telecommunication) infrastructure sharing (in the tower and tower related space). When asked, Suresh said, the time frame for this is 3-5 years.
