On 19 October, TowerXchange hosted the first working group for Civil Works & O&M in the African and Middle Eastern tower industry. The aim of the group was to identify some of the key challenges in the rollout, operations and maintenance of cell sites in the region and provide recommendations to MNOs, towercos and managed service providers on how to better work together amidst increasingly challenging economic conditions.
Working group members:
- Geert van Eijk, CEO, Helios Towers Ghana
- Hassan Nayef Dakhlallah, Advisor, Network Sector, Saudi Telecom Company
- Stefan van Heerden, Construction Manager, Atlas Tower
- Martin Black, Head of Procurement & Supply Chain, Tigo Tanzania
- Ahmed Saeb, Principal Category Manager, Networks SCM Technology, Vodafone Procurement Company
- Yatendra Chadha, Vice President (National Head - Site Acquisition), Indus Towers
- Salah Medawar, Chief Operations Officer, ieng Group
- Arie Ben-Dayin, VP sales, AEMEA, Mer Group
- Jean Farhat, Group CEO, NETIS
- Anita Pauperio Paulino, Business Unit Manager, Telecom, Metalogalva
Civil works and O&M Working group recommendations
Training and contractor management
RECOMMENDATION 1: Implement a continuous retraining programme with contractors
RECOMMENDATION 2: Integrate contractors with equipment manufacturers to ensure installation and maintenance is done to guidelines
RECOMMENDATION 3: Create an interface...