New tower designs have room for more operators

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Where do you get the best business from?
In telecom about 85 % of our business comes from India. Right now we are in Africa and doing well there. Soon we will penetrate in the Middle East and CIS. In Africa, the growth in telecom business is good, the only thing is that the banks are getting too tight ultimately affecting the business there.

What new projects are you eyeing in India and abroad?
There are a couple of exciting projects ahead of us. We are L1 in the east and L3 in West for BSNL's over Rs 3,000 crore project. We are nearing completion of 400 sites for USO fund project in Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya and Mizoram. We are qualified for the second phase of the USO fund project that will be launched sometime after the Lok Sabha elections. This includes preparing 11,000 sites for rural areas.

Is there any new trend in tower design that you are observing?
Yes, there is a change in the way an operator wants his tower to be. There was a time when they wanted the most optimal design tower, it used to be 6.5-7 ton tower. But if you had to put even two more antenna and you would find that the tower is not capable and needs to be strengthened. Now they are looking at a minimum three operator towers. There are some new designs coming for at least five operators so that there is room for new operator to come in and have access.

Companies in tower business are under pressure to scale up tenacy or consolidate. How big a threat is this to you?
Since we are the suppliers of the equipments we are not impacted by any such threat. But there is no denying the fact that consolidation is a trend in the tower management space. Smaller companies are opting for consolidation in order to grow big to be able to own a high tower population and present viable solution to the operators. Similarly, the operators are following this trend. However, we do not reap any benefits from this.

Do you see a slowdown in telecom?
Infrastructure is not growing in line with the subscribers. Besides, the GSM networks are very dynamic unlike the fixed line business, networking starts by first providing the coverage and then the quality of services has to be improved, quality improves when you keep increasing the capacity in the terminal equipment that is where a lot of money is spent. The way operators are adding to the subscriber base they are unable to cope up. ARPUs are falling. Thus, in times of such stiff competition, new operators to be cautious and have to evaluate the economic viability of an investment rather than simply taking a plunge.

Heena Jhingan
heenaj@cybermedia.co.in