During the past couple of decades, tower operating companies (towercos) have moved from being a few, largely national operations to a wider proliferation of well-established national and multinational businesses in many countries around the world. In the process, existing towercos have grown, new towercos have been established, some towercos have consolidated and various Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have divested their passive site assets.
The changing landscape
Historically towercos were centred on developed countries. Since the late-2000’s, growth has particularly been driven in Asia, Africa and South America, in part as MNOs look to benefit from the capex and opex savings that a towerco can deliver, as well as the cash injection that can result from the sale of their sites.
