Mer Group is a global telecom infrastructure solution provider and tower manufacturer with active offices and operations on four continents, and with over 60 years of experience.
Mer Group provides end-to-end cutting edge wireless infrastructure turnkey solutions with services covering network planning, site design, manufacture and erection of towers, site construction, equipment installation, network optimisation and maintenance. Mer has successfully delivered over 30,000 telecom sites.
TowerXchange: Good to speak to you again Arie. How have Mer’s customers’ priorities changed since Africa entered what might be described as the ‘infrastructure sharing era’?
Arie Bendayan, VP Sales Africa-Asia, Mer Group, Telecom Division:
As part of an on-going strategy to respond to recent telecom market trends, we are continually adapting our services and products to meet these changes.
In our day to day discussion with our customers, we find ourselves frequently offering solutions such as:
Multi-tenant infrastructure migration. A complete offering for towercos with a variety of solutions including products and services to enable a swift and cost- efficient migration from a single tenant to a multi-tenant infrastructure
End to end solutions for In-Building coverage for both towercos and MNOs
Turnkey low cost site solutions to enable MNOs and towercos to penetrate areas with lower ARPU and/or smaller expected revenue generation than traditional sites
TowerXchange: How can MNOs and towercos improve the economics of site deployment in areas that might not generate the ARPU necessary to meet MNO’s investment criteria, or towerco’s preference to build sites where they can sell co-location?
Arie Bendayan, VP Sales Africa-Asia, Mer Group, Telecom Division:
First and foremost by approaching and working hand in hand with companies such as Mer, companies which specialise in the design and implementation of efficient and cost effective turnkey (both passive and active) low cost solutions specifically designed for on and off grid rural areas.
Today innovative passive and active infrastructure solutions such as hybrid energy systems, micro BTS, low cost towers et cetera are freely available and their performance is proven. These solutions significantly lower capex and opex compared to conventional cell-sites. This enables the redefinition of traditional site deployment criteria.
Of course this model is certainly relevant for remote and rural areas where coverage is needed but it is also relevant in urban areas where sometimes additional capacity is needed and co-location is more relevant.
TowerXchange: Talk us through the details of how you can design towers to minimise capital outlay and installation costs?
Arie Bendayan, VP Sales Africa-Asia, Mer Group, Telecom Division:
In my opinion one should invest time in the planning stage, which should be done in full co-operation with the customer. More often than not, we find MNOs putting out general tenders, and by doing so locking themselves into generic solutions which do not necessarily meet the needs of specific sites.
As an example I would discuss the following points with the customer, and by such build tailor made solutions.
1. Wind and load information in order to come up with the most efficient and cost effective solution, avoiding over design
2. Consider with the customer the possibility of applying a temporary tower foundation solution that will enable reuse of the foundation and tower in an alternative location
3. Decrease to a minimum the tower loading by advising the customer to use innovative small antennas and fiber optic feeders
4. Fine tune the design taking into account possible tower upgrades in the future
TowerXchange: Similarly, talk us through the detail of the power solutions MER Group Telecom Division advocate using at remote, low cost sites?
Arie Bendayan, VP Sales Africa-Asia, Mer Group, Telecom Division:
I would say that there is not an off-the-shelf solution.
An efficient energy solution must be calibrated per specific site and customer requirements.
Therefore there are a few critical parameters which have to be considered, such as:
The geographic locale, helping us to take into consideration the local climate parameters. For example average number of hours of sun per day, and average number of rainy days
The electricity grid availability is also critical and will have an impact on the energy system design
The specific site power loads and back-up autonomy requirements
The space available on site
These basic parameters will enable us to design the most efficient hybrid power system, based generally on solar energy and using deep cycle batteries (and possibly wind turbines) and where applicable optional “worse case” backup generator.
Of-course our primary goal is to reduce capex and minimise opex compared to traditional sites where high energy costs make them not economically viable for low-cost rural implementations.
2.0 article notesour primary goal is to reduce capex and minimise opex compared to traditional sites where high energy costs make them not economically viable for low-cost rural implementations
TowerXchange: Is there a gap in the market between MNOs and the major towercos for a new class of rural network company, perhaps focusing on a revenue sharing business model?
Arie Bendayan, VP Sales Africa-Asia, Mer Group, Telecom Division:
Typically a towerco’s business model is focused on sharing the infrastructure between several tenants, and of course having preferably a high tenancy ratio in excess of two.
There are obvious obstacles in sharing the rural kind of infrastructure such as:
In rural areas, the ARPU is often half of the average ARPU and potential subscribers significantly lower, therefore I am not sure that more than one tenant would be viable
Adding additional tenants to the rural site will have a severe impact on the cost of the site. Exceeding a certain power load will entail the installation of a generator and therefore substantial opex which will kill the business model for both towercos and MNO.
Therefore yes, we can see today few initiatives where MNOs have partnered with “rural network companies” on a revenue share business model. But it is too early to see a clear outcome of those initiatives as models and countries are different.
I suggest another possibility by encouraging government entities to take the lead in developing rural telecommunication by imposing a modest “development levy” on the operators and using the funds for initial financing of rural sites as is already being done in a number of African countries.
Arie Bendayan will be leading a round table breakout session on “Low cost sites” how to reduce capex and opex” at the TowerXchange Meetup Africa, taking place on October 20 and 21, 2014 in Johannesburg. For details click here.
