The integrated regional telecommunications infrastructure services provider of Malaysia, edotco Group Sdn Bhd (edotco) is keen to invest in the telecom sector of Pakistan if conducive environment is provided by the country. Board of Directors Chairman Edotco Group of Malaysia Datuk Azzat Kamaluddin, called on Prime Minister Imran Khan and revealed the news. Besides Dr Nik Ramlah Nik Mehmood, Suresh Narain Singh Sidhu and Arif Hussain, High Commissioner of Malaysia Ikram Mohammad Ibrahim, Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman Haroon Sharif and Secretary Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera were also present in the meeting. They revealed that the company desired to enter into partnership in the Digital Pakistan programme.
With an investment of $100 million in Pakistan, the company has shared plans to raise its investment in cellphone tower infrastructure by $250 million in the next five years. Edotco had previously said it aimed to become Pakistan’s largest independent tower firm. In June 2017, it bought Pakistan’s Tanzanite Tower Pte Ltd for $90 million in a deal involving about 700 towers.
It was also discussed that 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,”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).
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.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.
