edotco Group to invest around $250-300 million in next five years

The integrated regional telecommunications infrastructure services provider, edotco Group Sdn Bhd (edotco) has announced to invest around $250-300 million in next five years in Pakistan if the government provides conducive environment and incentives for infrastructure.
"The edotco has already invested $100 million to establish and grow local operations and is planning to invest around $50-60 million annually for the next five years to transform the telecommunication industry towards achieving Digital Pakistan ambitions with smart solutions," said Chief Executive Officer for edotco Group Suresh Sidhu, flanked by Country Managing Director edotco Pakistan Arif Hussain and Director of Group Strategy Gayan Koralage, while talking to media persons here on Thursday.
The group claims to be Pakistan's largest independent tower company with 850 towers to date and is envisaging to have 20,000 to 30,000 towers i.e. 20-30 percent in near future to enable telecommunications providers to efficiently meet their growing infrastructure requirements.
"We want to pay taxes but we need conducive environment for investment, cost-effective infrastructure system and incentives for infrastructure," he added. He further said that Pakistan is well ahead of the Gulf countries in terms of infrastructure and legislation, but lamented that delays in taking decisions are on the part of the government.
An official of edotco further said that 3G/4G technology was faster in Pakistan but urged for sharing telecom infrastructure to make the tower infrastructure cost-effective.
The edotco is committed to lay foundation of '5G-ready Pakistan' but it requires some prerequisites including fiberisation, smart phone penetration as well as spectrum availability and policies on part of the government, they added. Currently around 6 percent towers in the country are fibre-connected while there is around 31 percent smart phone penetration. 5G would help in fast technology-based facilities.
They said that with an encouraging rise in Pakistan's smart phone penetration rate and increase in overall mobile and data usage, the edotco sees potential to advance the current telecommunication landscape to meet the growing demands.
With a strong presence and committed investment in the country, the edotco has reaffirmed its plans for creating an agile and future-ready telecommunications infrastructure industry in Pakistan, said edotco's official while sharing the group's strategy to progress the country's telecommunications sector whilst setting the foundation for a Digital Pakistan.
"With the nation's smart phone penetration rate expected to grow from the current 30 percent to over 60 percent in the next five years, edotco through its local operations edotco Pakistan reinforced its position as the country's nation building partner by highlighting its commitment to shaping Pakistan's telecommunications landscape to be future ready, while overcoming challenges to effectively manage and grow the infrastructure industry," they added.
To meet the projected five-fold spike in mobile data usage, Pakistan's telecommunications industry will need over 30,000 new tower sites by 2022, double the amount it has now. The new sites will be coverage sites to extend connectivity to rural and hard-to-reach areas as well as capacity sites to meet the increasing data usage growth, as there is users' transition from 3G to 4G and beyond.
"We are optimistic about Pakistan's encouraging connectivity developments; however, studies show that at least 14,000 telecommunication towers throughout the country are overlapping, leading to the duplication of resources and structural inefficiencies. As such, beyond increasing the number of towers to meet the growing usage, it will be more efficient to look at decreasing the number of overlapped sites through infrastructure sharing and explore ways to manage and grow the number of towers," said Suresh Sidhu.
Infrastructure sharing has proven to help MNOs by alleviating the cost pressure of building and maintaining towers, whilst enabling them to focus on their core business and new service creation. By reducing overlapping sites and increasing tenancy ratio per tower, the industry will see a significant reduction in capital expenditure (CAPEX) and annual operating expenses (OPEX).
Sidhu said, "At the moment, towers in Pakistan are operating at approximately 4,300 subscribers per tower - more than twice the 2,000 per tower ratio recommended." Building and maintaining this infrastructure require a substantial capital investment and resources from MNOs, he added.
Considering this, the edotco is ready to introduce innovations and invest in up-gradation that will support faster, better and more cost-efficient shared network infrastructure throughout Pakistan, he said.
With its industry expertise and strong presence in the region, the edotco is able to benchmark industry standards and bring in best practices to help realise the Digital Pakistan vision.
"We are keen to partner with the local ecosystem towards transforming the telecommunications landscape. To date, the edotco has invested over $100 million to establish and grow its local operations. Pakistan and Malaysia have shared a healthy bilateral relationship and we look forward to leading the way in telecommunications investment while playing a part in achieving the country's digital agenda," he added.
Over the years, the edotco has been deploying innovative solutions throughout the region including built-to-suit (BTS) hotels, in-building solutions (IBS), small cell solutions and combined antenna systems. The infrastructure services provider has also tapped its use of next-generation technology such as predictive analytics, automation and digitalisation, for a more proactive and efficient way in managing telecommunication infrastructure.
The edotco currently owns and manages over 28,500 towers across the six countries wherein they have a presence. Over the past five years the company has been committed to ensuring the right sharable infrastructure that is constructed and efficiently managed to assist mobile operators in delivering cost-effective and seamless connectivity.