The APAC towerco ecosystem is unique in many ways. The combination of developed and developing markets, varying level of towerco penetration, MNO consolidation and a vibrant M&A landscape makes it challenging to keep track of everyone you need to know. TowerXchange’s who’s who gives you a comprehensive guide to the top 200+ towercos, MNOs and investors that make up this large and complex ecosystem:
2Degrees – New Zealand’s newest MNO and third in market share. Was owned by Trilogy Partners until June 2022, when it was sold to Voyage Australia Pty Limited as part of the Vocus group. 2Degrees are the only MNO in New Zealand not to have carved out towers.
5G Japan: Joint Venture InfraCo with ownership split between Japanese MNOs Softbank and KDDI. 5G Japan will promote infrastructure sharing based on the mutual use of base station assets held by KDDI and SoftBank to accelerate the rollout of 5G networks in rural Japan. The joint venture will also conduct construction design and construction management work for 5G base stations.
AB Hightech Consortium: One of the towercos licensed to operate in Bangladesh. The company is owned by various local shareholders including ADN Telecom, AB Hightech International, ZN Enterprise, Synergy Logistic and Orange Digital. Foreign shareholders include China Communications Services International and Changshu Fengfan Power Equipment Company. AB Hightech secured a build-to-suit contract with Robi, but is thought to be inactive. There are rumours their licence is available for other towercos looking to enter Bangladesh.
Aboitiz InfraCapital: Infrastructure arm of Filipino Aboitiz Group whose focus also extends to digital infrastructure. Aboitiz is a towerco license holder in the Philippines by the name of Unity and is also focussed on rolling out small cells.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority: Sovereign wealth fund owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADIA is an investor in EdgePoint Infrastructure.
Acoda Towers: Malaysian headquartered telecom managed services firm which has secured a towerco license in the Philippines and has partnered with LCS Group in rolling out sites.
Advanced Info Service (AIS): Thai MNO in which Singtel has a minority stake.
Alcazar Capital: Private equity firm which has invested in Myanmar towerco, Irrawaddy Green Towers and Vietnamese towerco, Golden Towers.
Alliance Towers: Filipino common tower company which was acquired by Opti-Teknology and Bersama Digital in July 2022. Alliance Towers was founded by Opti-Teknology’s equity owners, and manages 40 towers in the Philippines.
American Tower: The world’s largest independent towerco with a portfolio of over 220,000 sites globally. In Asia, American Tower has a presence in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines. American Tower entered the Indian market in 2009 acquiring the towers of Xcel Telecom, and Transcend Infrastructure, before acquiring the tower portfolio of Essar Telecom in 2010. The towerco gained significant scale in 2016 through the acquisition of over 40,000 towers from Viom Networks, further bolstering this with 20,000 towers from Vodafone and Idea in 2018. American tower also owns Lease Advisors (a lease aggregator company in Australia) and is exploring opportunities to expand into digital infrastructure in Indonesia.
AMP Capital: Global investment manager headquartered in Australia. Has a number of investments in the digital infrastructure space globally. In late 2020, AMP announced a US$130mn syndicated loan facility with Australian towerco, Stilmark.
Amplitel: Telstra’s towerco business, formerly known as InfraCo Towers. Telstra announced plans to carve out its tower portfolio in late 2020 and in June 2021 agreed the sale of a 49% stake to investment consortium headed by Australia’s sovereign wealth Future Fund and featuring pension funds Commonwealth Superannuation Corp and Sunsuper. Largest towerco in Australia with 8,200 sites.
AP Towers: Myanmar towerco formed by the merger of Apollo Towers and Pan Asia Majestic Eagle (PAMEL). AP Towers is owned by TPG, Tillman Global Holdings and Myanmar Investments.
Ascend Telecom: Indian towerco, formerly known as Aster Infrastructure, which was founded in 2002. Ascend acquired towerco, India Telecom Infra and its portfolio of c. 2,500 sites back in 2012. The company currently has a portfolio of 6,850 towers. The company is also active in IBS, small cells, fibre and smart cities and is heavily focussed on green energy solutions. Ascend is backed by private equity company, New Silk Route.
Astro Tower: Chinese firm founded by veterans of the Chinese tower industry. Astro Tower owns several portfolio companies that own and operate towers throughout China.
Australia Tower Network (ATN): Towerco formed from the sale of Optus’ towers to Australian Super. ATN has since acquired independent towerco Axicom, to create a new entity that owns over 4,200 sites and will soon be rebranding.
Axiata Group: Axiata is a leading telecommunications group in Asia and has controlling interests in six mobile operators under the brand names of Celcom in Malaysia, XL in Indonesia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, Robi in Bangladesh, Smart in Cambodia and Ncell in Nepal. Axiata has carved out its towers in its six markets into its towerco, edotco, with the exception of Nepal. It retains a 63% stake and has also sold towers to Protelindo and Centratama in Indonesia.
Axicom: Australian towerco formerly known as Crown Castle Australia. Since 2000, Axicom has completed a number of tower deals including the acquisition of c. 700 sites from Optus (2000), c. 800 from Vodafone (2001 and 2008) and c. 50 sites from Hutchison. Axicom has a portfolio of around 2,000 sites in the country and following a transaction that closed in May 2022 is in the process of being merged with Australian Tower Network (ATN), the carve out of Optus.
BAI Communications: Formerly known as Broadcast Australia, BAI Communications manages an extensive network of communications infrastructure across Australia and Hong Kong as well as the UK, Canada and US. The company has focussed heavily on providing neutral host solutions to the transport sector but is expanding into other verticals including industrial applications, smart cities and public safety. Its Australian tower portfolios is up for sale in a process being run by Barrenjoey Capital.
Balitower: Founded in 2006, PT Bali Towerindo Sentra Tbk is a telecommunication tower company that originated in the Indonesian province of Bali. Balitower was listed on the stock market in 2013, and in 2015 began to expand its footprint outside of Bali, mostly through its partnership with the government of Jakarta, managing the CCTV system in return for rights to exploit the poles as small cell locations. Balitower currently has a portfolio of around 2,600 sites in Indonesia as well as a fibre network throughout the country.
Banglalink: Bangladeshi MNO owned by VEON. There is an ongoing process for Banglalink to carve out 5,500 of their 6,200 towers to one of Bangladesh’s four towercos.
Beeline: Lao MNO, formerly owned by VimpelCom, which was taken over by Lao government.
Beijing Miteno Communication Technology: One of China’s leading independent towercos with an estimated 6,000 towers. Miteno also has international ambitions and is an active bidder on tower transactions in Southeast Asia. The company is also a leading tower designer and manufacturer.
Beijing RLZY: Beijing Rui Lan Zuo Yue Technology began operations as a service provider to the three MNOs in China back in the early 2000s, before expanding its business to include tower leasing. It currently has 1,000+ assets in its portfolio, which includes a mix of monopoles/towers, rooftops and streetlights.
Berkshire Partners: Private equity firm with money at work in Indonesian towerco, Protelindo. Berkshire was an early investor in both Crown Castle and Torres Unidas and has other active investments within the communications sector.
Bharti Airtel: India’s second largest MNO by subscribers, Airtel also has a presence in Sri Lanka and a minority stake in Robi in Bangladesh (with Axiata the majority shareholder). Airtel also has a presence in 14 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, where it has sold the vast majority of its towers. In India, Bharti Airtel carved out its own towerco, Bharti Infratel in late 2006, and also partnered with MNOs, Hutchison and Idea to pool their towers and form Indus Towers. Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel have now merged with Bharti Airtel initially owning around 40%. Bharti purchased a further 4.7% stake in Indus from Vi, with the Vi’s profits from the sale being used to clear its debt with Indus.
In Bangladesh, the majority of Robi’s towers are now owned or managed by edotco. In Sri Lanka, Airtel retains its towers.
Brookfield Asset Management: Leading infrastructure investor with various investments in the digital infrastructure space. Brookfield owns Indian towerco, Summit Digitel, and further afield owns UK towerco Wireless Infrastructure Group, France’s TDF, and Telia Towers in Norway and Finland. Brookfield is also a shareholder in Vodafone New Zealand. Across their entire footprint, Brookfield owns 185,000 tower sites.
BSNL: Indian state-owned operator with a less than 10% market share. BSNL has carved out its tower assets, but TowerXchange understands it is neither actively seeking co-locations, nor external capital, and as such still considers the towers to be owned by the MNO rather than a towerco.
Camtower Link: Cambodian towerco with 18 sites, primarily based around Ankor Watt and built in collaboration with UNESCO.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board: CPPIB is a professional investment management organisation that invests the funds of the Canada Pension Plan on behalf of its 20mn contributors and beneficiaries. CPPIB is the majority shareholder in BAI Communications, and in conjunction with KKR held a 10% stake in Indian towerco, Bharti Infratel – prior to its merger with Indus Towers.
Celcom: Axiata’s Malaysian opco which is in the process of merging with Telenor’s Digi.
Cellcard: One of Cambodia’s three major MNOs. Cellcard is owned by Cambodian CamGSM. All of Cellcard's 3200 towers are managed by edotco.
Centratama Group (PT Centratama Telekommunikasi Indonesia): Indonesian infraco which has three portfolio companies focussed on towers (PT Centratama Menara Indonesia), IBS/ DAS (PT Mac Sarana Djaya) and fibre for the corporate and residential segment (PT Fastel Sarana Indonesia). DigitalBridge backed EdgePoint Infrastructure acquired Centratama in 2021 in a series of transactions. In March 2022 Centratama purchased EdgePoint’s other portfolio of towers in Indonesia (which it got from Indosat Ooredoo), to become the platform for EdgePoint to operate in DAS, IBS, Towers and Fibre in the country.
China Independent Tower Alliance (CITA): The China Independent Tower Alliance was inaugurated on 30 June, 2017, created under the leadership and guidance of the Communications Network Operation and Maintenance Committee (COMC) and in partnership with private towercos, telecom infrastructure builders, equipment and service providers, design consulting firms, academic and research institutes, and more. Its current membership consists of more than 200+ companies and organisations.
China Mobile: Leading State-owned telecommunications services provider in Mainland China with the world’s largest mobile network and mobile customer base with subscribers numbering over 940mn as of Q2 21. It is listed on both the Hong Kong and New York Stock Exchange (HKEX and NYSE). China Mobile owns 27.93% of China Tower Corporation, to which all its towers have been transferred.
China Reform Corporation: State-owned fund and asset manager with a 4.41% stake in China Tower Corporation.
China Telecom: State-owned telecommunications services provider in Mainland China with 357.82mn subscribers as of Q2 21. China Telecom owns 20.5% of China Tower Corporation, to which all its towers have been transferred.
China Tower Corporation: The world’s largest tower company with a portfolio of over two million sites. China Tower was formed in 2014 as a joint venture between China’s three MNOs – China Mobile, China Telcom and China Unicom – pooling 1.44mn legacy towers from the operators and rapidly rolling out new sites (whilst decommissioning parallel infrastructure).
With over two million towers, the company owns well over 95% of China’s total stock of towers and is impressive not only for its scale but also for its level of innovation, expanding its business model beyond the traditional towerco scope. In addition to its core telecoms business, China Tower has devised a “Two Wings” strategy – establishing two subsidiaries – a trans-sector Site Application and Information business (turning sites from communication towers to digital towers – collecting data to be used by mobile and non-mobile customers) and an energy business (providing power services to both operators and non-telecom clients whilst also establishing a recycling system for batteries).
China Tower listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in August 2018, valuing the company at HK217bn (US$27.6bn) and representing a multiple of 7.1x their adjusted EBITDA for 2018.
China Unicom: State-owned telecommunications services provider in Mainland China with 309.47mn subscribers as of Q2 21. China Unicom owns 20.65% of China Tower Corporation, to which all its towers have been transferred.
Common Tower: Common Tower Technologies Sdn. Bhd is an independent tower owner and operator in Malaysia, with a portfolio of 264 sites.
Commonwealth Superannuation Corp: State owned organisation looking after super funds designed for Australian Government and Defence Force employees. CSC was part of the investment consortium that bought a 49% stake in Telstra’s tower business.
Continental Towers: Towerco with a presence across Central and Latin America which has secured a towerco license in the Philippines.
Cootel: Chinese owned Cambodian MNO with limited market share.
CREI: I-engineering's investment arm, which has started building and leasing towers in the Philippines.
CVC Capital: Private equity firm which agreed to acquire Myanmar towerco, Irrawaddy Green Towers, in late 2020.
DFC: US International Development Finance Corporation is America’s development bank, partnering with the private sector to finance solutions in the developing world. The DFC was formed following the merger of Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) with the Development Credit Authority of the United States Agency for International Development. Historical investments in the Asian tower space include OPIC’s provision of a US$250mn debt facility to Apollo Tower in 2016.
D'harmoni: Malaysian towerco with 559 sites.
Dialog: Axiata’s Sri Lankan opco (see Axiata Group).
DIF: The Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund, formerly known as TRUEGIF or TRUEIF, is a towerco solution created by Thai MNO True. It is Thailand’s first telecommunication infrastructure fund which invests in telecommunication infrastructure assets such as telecommunication towers, fibre optic cable system, transmission equipment, broadband system and/or revenue incurred from the assets, with extensive coverage nationwide. The fund was listed in late 2013. The towerco owns just over 16,000 towers across Thailand.
Digi: Telenor’s Malaysian opco. Digi is currently in the process of merging with Axiata’s Celcom in the market.
Digital National Berhad: Established to be Malaysia’s single wholesale 5G network operator, mandated to rollout Malaysia’s 5G network and infrastructure across the whole nation. Plans are underway for Malaysia’s MNOs to acquire a combined 70% stake.
DigitalBridge: One of the world’s largest digital infrastructure firms with 22 portfolio companies. In Asia, DigitalBridge is an investor in EdgePoint Infrastructure.
Dito: The Philippines newest MNO backed by China Telecom and local businessman Dennis A. Uy. Dito has been rapidly rolling out its network across the country. Dito has signed partnerships with a number of towercos to rollout its network and also own around 5,000 towers of their own.
DOCOMO: Japanese MNO that sold 71 towers to JTower in 2021 and entered into an agreement to transfer over 6,000 sites in 2022.
DTAC (Total Access Communication): Thai MNO owned by Telenor Group. Had agreed to a merger with TRUE, but is facing regulatory difficulty in securing approval.
Eco-Friendly Tower (EFT): Myanmar towerco which is a subsidiary of diversified Myanmar conglomerate Young Investment Group. EFT is understood to own around 600 towers in the country.
EdgePoint Infrastructure: EdgePoint Infrastructure is an ASEAN-based telecommunications infrastructure company backed by DigitalBridge. The company is led by former edotco CEO Suresh Sidhu and are focused on building and leasing shareable, fibre-integrated, modern telecom structures as well as providing small cells and in-building systems. In 2021 they received $US500m from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
Through a series of quick-fire acquisitions and organic growth, they operate 13,000 sites across Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. EdgePoint is geared up to power Digital ASEAN with Next Generation Infrastructure via an industry leading position that focuses on scale, operational efficiency and innovation, leveraging modern operation practises, dep industry insight, extensive ecosystem partnerships and the adoption of analytics and digital technologies.
edotco Group: Pan-Asian towerco which is a subsidiary of Axiata Group. Axiata own a controlling 62.4% stake in the company and further shareholders include INCJ, Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP). edotco own and manages 52,772 towers across Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka. The company is targeting over 70,000 sites by 2025. As well as being a leader in scale, edotco continues to be a leader in innovation.
The company has a heavy focus on digitisation, energy optimisiation and operational excellence, while also exploring areas including fibre, antenna as a service, inbuilding solutions, site as a service and network as a service.
Emerging Capital Partners (ECP): Investment firm which is an investor in multi-national towerco, IHS Towers. Through their tie up with iSON Group, ECP is also an investor in Bangladesh towerco, Kirtonkhola Tower.
ETL: Lao MNO.
Everest Infrastructure Partners: US towerco with over 4,000 sites which recently opened international operations focussed on the Australian and New Zealand markets. Everest Infrastructure Partners ANZ has received the financial backing of private equity firm, Peppertree Partners.
FMO: Dutch development bank which is 51% government owned and 49% owned by commercial banks and financial institutions. In the Asian towerco space, FMO is an investor in IHS towers (who recently secured a license in the Philippines) and arranged a subordinated loan of US$13mn to Irrawaddy Green Towers in Myanmar via its Infrastructure Development Fund.
Frontier Tower Associates Philippines (FTAP): Filipino towerco which is the principal subsidiary of Pinnacle Towers. FTAP was one of the first firms to secure a towerco license in the Philippines, and the first to reach 500 new sites.
Future Fund: Australian sovereign wealth fund which was part of the investment consortium that bought a 49% stake in Telstra’s tower business, Amplitel.
GIC: A leading global investment firm which firm manages Singapore’s foreign reserves through investments in over 40 countries. GIC’s towerco investments include Summit Digitel and IHS Towers.
Gihon: Indonesian towerco, PT. Gihon Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Gihon) was established in Jakarta in 2001. Whilst separately listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange, Gihon is part of Tower Bersama Group having been acquired in late 2018.
Globe Telecom: The Philippines largest MNO in which Ayala Corporation and Singapore-based Singtel are major shareholders. Globe has an ongoing process to sell its c.12000 sites to towercos in the country, following in the footsteps of competitor PDLT.
Gmobile: Vietnamese mobile network operator with limited market share.
Golden Towers: Vietnamese towerco backed by private equity firm, Alcazar capital.
Grameenphone: Bangladesh’s largest MNO with approximately 15,500 towers. Telenor holds a 55.8% ownership share in Grameenphone, which is listed on the Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges. Grameenphone has been operating in Bangladesh for 25 years and holds the number one position in the market, with around 46.3% revenue market share and 83.3 million subscriptions at the end of 2021. Grameenphone is in a healthier financial position than its competitors, and as such any tower sale is likely be further down the line.
GTL Infrastructure: GTL Infrastructure is a publicly-listed tower company in India with a portfolio of ~27,000 towers across the country, serving all major telecoms service providers. Founded in 2004 and listed in 2006, GTL Infrastructure began expanding its portfolio in 2008 and acquired 17,500 towers from Aircel. However, the consolidation of the Indian MNO market, ongoing price wars between service providers and the AGR crisis have stymied investment and left GTL Infrastructure with a heavy debt burden. In spite of the many announcements with regards to its change of ownership, a substantial change is yet to materialise and to date, the towerco is still facing severe financial issues.
Guodong: China’s largest towerco after China Tower Corportation, Guodong has a portfolio of over 20,000 towers in the country. Guodong was reportedly a shortlisted bidder in the sale of Irrawaddy Green Towers in Myanmar, thus demonstrating an appetite for international expansion. They secured funding from IFC in November 2020.
Hutchison: MNO with a presence in APAC in Indonesia (where it operates as Tri), Sri Lanka (where it operates as Hutch) and Australia (where it has a shareholding in TPG Telecom). In Indonesia, Hutchison has sold towers to both Protelindo and STP and in Australia TPG Telecom has sold its towers to OMERS. In Europe, Hutchison reached a deal to sell its entire tower portfolio to Cellnex back in 2020. In September 2021, Hutchinson announced a merger in Indonesia with Indosat Ooredoo, worth US$6bn. The new entity – Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, began operating in 2022.
IBS Tower (PT Inti Bangun Sejahtera Tbk): Indonesian towerco, listed on the local stock exchange, with origins as an in-building solutions provider. The towerco amassed a portfolio of around 5,000 towers before agreeing the sale of up to 3,000 sites to Tower Bersama back in 2020. The company is currently focussed on building its IBS and fibre business, and a sale of the remaining 3,000 macro-towers could be considered in the future.
IHS Towers: Multinational towerco with a footprint across sub-Saharan Africa, MENA and Latin America. In Asia, IHS Towers has a towerco license in the Philippines, but is yet to start operating in the country.
Indosat Ooredoo: Indonesian MNO, 65% owned by Qatari Ooredoo Group. Indosat Ooredoo has agreed the sale of towers in three tranches to Mitratel (2,100 towers) and Protelindo (1,000 towers) which both closed in 2019. The remainder of their towers were sold in March 2021, to Edge Point Infrastructure (4,200 towers). In September 2021 it was confirmed that Ooredoo would merge with Hutchison’s opco in the country to challenge Telkomsel’s dominance in the market. The new entity – Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, began operating in 2022.
Indus Towers: Indian towerco formed by the merger in late 2020 of Bharti Infratel Limited and erstwhile Indus Towers. Indus Towers has a portfolio of over 175,000 sites, making it the third largest towerco in the world (behind China Tower and American Tower). Erstwhile Indus Towers was established as a joint venture in 2007, originally between Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.
Each of the operators contributed towers to the joint venture whilst also giving Indus Towers first refusal to rollout new sites in 15 telecom circles. Indus could not carry out business in the 7 telecom circles that pre-merger Bharti Infratel operated in (Bharti Infratel having been formed by the carve out of Bharti Airtel’s assets in 7 telecom circles). The merger of Bharti Infratel and erstwhile Indus Towers created a pan-Indian towerco operating in all 22 telecom circles.
InfraRed Capital: InfraRed Capital Partners is an international infrastructure investment manager, with $US12 billion under management. It owns 40% of Vodafone New Zealand’s carve out towerco
Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ): Japanese state-backed private equity firm which is an investor in pan-Asian towerco, edotco. INCJ was also an investor in Japanese in-building solution provider turned towerco, JTower.
International Finance Corporation (IFC): The IFC is a member of the World Bank Group, the world’s leading DFI, offering investment, advisory and asset management services to encourage private sector development in less developed countries. IHS Towers and Guodong are amongst the IFC’s investments in the towerco space.
Irrawaddy Green Towers: Myanmar’s largest towerco with a portfolio of over 4,000 sites. Irrawaddy Green Towers was acquired by CVC Capital in late 2020, with the towerco’s previous owners including M1 Group and Blu Stone Management.
ISOC edotco Towers: Filipino towerco formed in 2019 through a partnership between Philippines based ISOC holdings and pan-Asian towerco, edotco Group. ISOC edotco Towers’ site count is reflected in edotco’s figures. In April 2022, ISOC edotco Towers successfully acquired 2,973 towers from PLDT to become the largest towerco in the Philippines. The sites are in the process of being transferred.
iSON Tower: Emerging markets focussed towerco, part of the iSON Group. iSON, alongside ECP and Confidence Group partnered with American Tower on one of Bangladesh’s towerco license holders - Kirtonkhola Tower.
JTOWER: Founded in 2012, JTOWER – despite its name – had focussed on the in-building solutions market. In addition to operating in Japan, JTOWER has an in-building solution business in Vietnam where it operates as SPN. SPN acquired the IBS portfolio of Vietnamese towerco SEATH and has added further acquisitions to its portfolio. JTOWER made its first foray into macro towers in 2021 with the acquisition of 71 towers from Japan’s NTT, and in March 2022 entered into an agreement to acquire a further 6,000 sites. Financing for the second batch is underway, but no towers have yet been transferred.
KDDI: Japanese MNO which operates as au in Japan. KDDI also owns MPT in Myanmar and Mobicom in Mongolia. They have partnered with Softbank on JV Infraco 5G Japan to help build both MNOs 5G networks in a more efficient manner.
Khazanah Nasional Berhad: The strategic investment fund of the Government of Malaysia. Khazanah holds and manages selected commercial assets of the Government and undertakes strategic investments on behalf of the nation. It is involved in sectors such as power, telecommunications, finance, healthcare, aviation, infrastructure, leisure and tourism, and property. In December 2016 the fund invested US$200mn in exchange for a 10.7% stake in edotco.
Kirtonkhola Tower: The towerco is one of the four licensed entities allowed to operate in Bangladesh. The company’s shareholders include Confidence Group, American Tower and iSON Group.
KKR: Leading global investment firm whose towerco investments in Asia include Indus Towers in India and Pinnacle Towers in the Philippines. Global towerco investments which KKR has recently exited include Telxius and Hivory.
Konsortium Jaringan Selangor (KJS): KJS is a State-backed towerco created in partnership with the Malaysian state of Selangor. The company is owned by Malaysian conglomerate, YTL (which also owns Malaysian MNO, Yes). KJS has a portfolio of around 490 sites.
Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP): Malaysia’s largest public service pension fund which is an investor in pan-Asian towerco, edotco.
Lanka Bell: Sri Lankan MNO.
Lao Telecommunication Company: Laos’ leading MNO in which Ooredoo has an indirect minority investment.
LCS Holdings: Filipino conglomerate, owned by politician Chavit Singson. LCS has secured a towerco license in the Philippines and has secured a new build contract for an initial 300 sites from new market entrant, Dito. LCS aims to build up to 6,000 new towers in the country.
M1 Group: Lebanese investment firm that was an investor in Irrawaddy Green Towers. M1 Group recently acquired Telenor’s Myanmar operations.
Macquarie: Australian investment bank and manager that invests in towerco through both third-party capital and the banks own balance sheet. Former Investor in Australian towerco, Axicom Group and Indian towerco, Viom Networks which was acquired by American Tower. Macquarie exited its investment in ATC India in 2021. Other investments in APAC towers include PhilTower Consortium in the Philippines and Bersama Digital, the holding company of Tower Bersama.
Maxis: Malaysia’s largest MNO, will move to second position when the merger of Celcom and Digi is finalised.
Metfone: Viettel’s Cambodian opco.
Mitratel: Founded in 1995, PT. Dayamitra Telecommunications (Mitratel) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Telkom) and sister company of MNO PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel). Mitratel acquired 6,050 towers from Telkomsel in 2020 4,000 in 2021 and is set to acquire 6,000 more towers in 2022. Mitratel is understood to receive around 50% of Telkomsel’s BTS orders. The towerco has also completed a tower deal with Indosat Ooredoo, acquiring 2,100 sites in 2019. Mitratel was to be transferred to Tower Bersama Group under an innovative share- swap structure, but the deal was overruled by the Indonesian government in Q3 2015. The company IPO'd in 2021 and looks set to use the capital raised to branch out into fibre and potentially international expansion.
Mobifone: State-owned operator in Vietnam which the government is looking to privatise. The operator is understood to have around 20,000 towers in the market.
Morrison & Co: Asset manager managing the investment consortium which bought a 49% stake in Telstra’s towerco business, Amplitel.
MPT Myanmar: State owned operator in Myanmar which has the largest share of the country’s subscriber base. In the first half of 2016, MPT started to share its infrastructure with the other MNOs. MPT has relied heavily on towercos for new build.
MTNL: Indian state-owned operator with limited market share. Plans to merge MTNL with state owned BSNL have been deferred due to financial reasons, although there is close cooperation and service integration between the two struggling operators.
Meralco: The Manila Electric Company, also known as Meralco, is an electric power distribution company in the Philippines. They have secured a licence under the common tower regime and have begun rolling out sites.
Myanmar Investments: The first Myanmar-focused investment company to be admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. MIL was established in 2013 and was an investor in Apollo Towers and now AP Towers following Apollo’s merger with PAMEL. Following the political turmoil in Myanmar, Myanmar Investments seeks to realise its investments before winding up.
Myanmar National Telecom Infra (MNTI): Small independent towerco created in Myanmar by MNTH after the entrance of Viettel’s Mytel. The company closed a BTS deal with Mytel and has built a portfolio of 375 sites.
Mytel: Myanmar’s newest MNO which commenced operations in June 2017 and has grown its market share steadily since. Mytel is a joint venture between Vietnam’s Viettel and a consortium of 11 local companies (Myanmar National Telecom Holding Public Limited).
In very Viettel fashion, Mytel has developed many small infrastructure subsidiaries across Myanmar to satisfy its growing BTS needs—and many of those entities are becoming acquisition targets for the bigger towercos. Mytel has built around 3,600 towers and co-locates on over 5,000 towerco owned sites.
National Telecom: State owned operator in Thailand, formed through the 2021 merger of CAT and TOT. Thailand's other MNOs have operated their networks under build-operate-transfer (BOT) partnerships with state-backed CAT and TOT which had led to disputes about tower ownership as the BOT relationships concluded.
The dispute between operator AIS and TOT has now been resolved, however the two parties had explored the formation of a potential tower joint venture amidst the dispute. CAT and TOT’s merger doesn’t appear to have impacted this dynamic.
National Tower Development: Myanmar towerco established in 2017 with a portfolio of around 200 sites in the country.
Naza Communications: Formerly known as Premium Radius, Naza Communications is a towerco operating in Malaysia. Started in 2014, the towerco is positioning itself to be more than just a site-based asset provider to the mobile network operators in the country, investing in RAN sharing solutions on top of tower leasing.
Ncell: Axiata’s Nepalese opco (see Axiata Group).
Net1 Group: One of Indonesia’s smaller MNOs.
Nepal Telecom: Nepalese MNO.
New Silk Route: Private equity firm that invests in private companies in India, Asia, and the Middle East. Its investments in the telecommunications infrastructure industry include Ascend Telecom in India.
OCK Group: Malaysian headquartered company providing an array of services in the telecommunications, energy and infrastructure space. The company owns a portfolio of 4,300 towers spread across Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam. There are rumours that OCK’s portfolio is up for sale, with their market leading independent towerco status in Vietnam particularly appealing.
Omnix: Malaysian towerco established in 2011. One of its main value propositions is the land bank it secured through government and private site ground tenancy agreements with the Islamic Council in Malaysia, giving it access to highly coveted but difficult to acquire sites.
OMERS: Canadian pension fund that is part of the Australian Symphony Consortium, and acquired a 100% stake in Australia’s TPG Telecom’s towers in May 2022. In June 2022 Stilmark announced an acquisition of fellow Symphony member Stilmark Group – a small independent towerco in Australia.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan: Canadian pension fund that acquired a 70% stake in Spark New Zealand's “TowerCo” in July 2022.
Ooredoo: Multi-national MNO headquartered in Qatar. In Southeast Asia, Ooredoo has a presence in Indonesia (where it operates as Indosat Ooredoo), Myanmar, Maldives, Laos (where it has an indirect investment in Lao Telecommunication Company) and Singapore (where it has an indirect investment in StarHub). In MENA, the operator has a presence in Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Tunisia and Qatar.
In Indonesia, Indosat Ooredoo has done tower deals with Protelindo, Mitratel and EdgePoint Infrastructure, divesting its entire portfolio of assets. In Myanmar, Ooredoo owns a modest portfolio of towers, having relied primarily on towercos for new build. In Myanmar, the company initially chose to retain ownership of power assets when having sites built by third party towercos, outsourcing management of the equipment to ESCO IPT, but subsequently switched energy management to towercos.
Optus: Australian MNO owned by Singtel. In October 2021 Singtel sold a 70% stake in its tower business to Australian Super to create Australia Tower Network.
PEKAPE (PT Permata Karya Perdana): Indonesian towerco established in 2004 with a portfolio of around 350 sites. Through its partnership with Alfa Mart, one of the leading retailers in the country, PEKAPE is uniquely positioned to offer some of the best locations desired by MNOs for coverage, infill and capacity.
Peppertree Capital: Private equity firm focussed on the communications infrastructure space. Peppertree’s investments in the towerco space include Everest Infrastructure ANZ (active in Australia and New Zealand) and iSON Towers in the Philippines.
Pinnacle Towers: Towerco whose subsidiary Frontier Tower Associates Philippines was one of the first firms to secure a towerco license in the Philippines. Whilst heavily focussed on the Filippino market, Pinnacle Towers has ambitions to become a leading telecom infrastructure platform in Asia Pacific. Pinnacle Towers secured investment from leading investment firm, KKR, in late 2020.
Phil-Tower Consortium: Filipino towerco license holder that has secured build to suit contracts with both Smart and Globe. PhilTower is part of a regional group which also has a presence in Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar. Has primarily focused on urban sites in the metro-Manila area.
Protelindo: Indonesia’s largest independent towerco with a portfolio of over 29,000 sites in the country. One of Protelindo’s most recent transactions include the 2021 acquisition of over 6,700 sites and 9,000km of fibre from independent towerco STP Towers.
In addition to acquiring and building a portfolio of over 29,000 macro-towers, Protelindo has been at the forefront of fibre investment in the Indonesia market (developing a portfolio of over 75,000km of fibre) and has developed a healthy small cells business. Protelindo's capabilities in fibre and small cells were developed in large part through their 2015 acquisition of iForte.
Provident Capital Partners: Investors in Tower Bersama.
PSP Investments: Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) is a Canadian investment manager with an interest in the digital infrastructure asset class. In Europe, PSP is an investor in French towerco, TDF, and invested in Tower Bersama in 2022 alongside Macquiare Asset Management.
Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC): Australian government owned investment company which is an investor in Filipino towerco, Pinnacle Towers and is a former investor in Indian towerco, Indus Towers. QIC was linked to the Optus tower sale.
Rakuten: Japanese MNO which is rolling out its network using OpenRAN technology, and has a much smaller market share than KDDI, NTT and Softbank. Rakuten has made an investment of a minority stake in JTOWER to streamline its deployment, and has also partnered with to establish a new joint venture infraco by the name of Rakuten Mobile Infrastructure Solutions.
Rakuten Mobile Infrastructure Solutions: Joint venture infraco between Japenese MNO Rakuten and Tokyo Electric Power Grid Co (TEPCO). The JV will utilize public assets and TEPCOs extensive existing infrastructure to expand Rakuten Mobile's network, developing installation specifications for Rakuten Mobile's base station equipment and managing installation work.
Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio): India’s largest MNO (owned by Reliance Industries) which entered the market in 2016 with an aggressive low-cost strategy. The company embarked on a rapid build-out effort whilst also co-locating on existing Reliance Communications sites (sites which it later acquired).
A separate division, Reliance Jio Infratel, was created to own and operate Reliance Jio’s tower assets with the towerco continuing the rapid build out. Reliance Jio Infratel was acquired by Brookfield and the towerco has been re-named Summit Digitel.
Robi: Axiata’s subsidiary in Bangladesh (see Axiata Group)
Sacofa: Malaysian state-backed towerco which has built and acquired a portfolio of around 1,800 sites in Sarawak.
Saratoga Group: Investors in Tower Bersama
SBA Communications: Multinational towerco with an extensive footprint across the US and CALA as well as a footprint in South Africa and Tanzania. In Asia, SBA has a towerco license in the Philippines where it has amassed 20 sites as of Q222.
SCB Asset Management: Fund manager of the Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund, a towerco solution created by Thai MNO True.
Seatel : Chinese owned Cambodian MNO with limited market share.
Singtel (Singapore Telecommunications Limited): Telecommunications conglomerate with mobile operations in Singapore, Australia (where it operates as Optus), Thailand (via it share in AIS), Philippines (via its share in Globe Telecom) and Indonesia (via its stake in Telkomsel). The company is also a major investor in Airtel which has operations in India and across Africa.
SLTMobitel: Sri Lankan MNO.
Smart: Axiata’s Cambodian opco (See Axiata Group).
Smart Communications: Mobile arm of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and one of the Philippines three MNOs. In April 2022, PLDT became the first MNO in the Philippines to sign a sale and leaseback deal when they sold 5907 towers to EdgePoint and edotco.
Smart Telecom: Nepalese MNO.
Smartfren: One of Indonesia’s smaller MNOs.
Softbank: Japanese MNO. They have partnered with KDDI on JV Infraco 5G Japan to help build both MNOs 5G networks in a more efficient manner.
Spark: MNO operating in New Zealand. In February 2022 they announced intentions to carve out 1263 sites, while maintaining the remaining 250. Their ambition to monetise their tower assets was realised with a sale of a 70% stake to OTTP in July of the same year.
Spark TowerCo: New towerco in New Zealand with a portfolio of 1263 sites. Spark TowerCo is 70% owned by OTTP and is led by CEO Rob Berrill. As part of the deal Spark TowerCo has secured a new build commitment of 670 new sites to be completed over the next ten years.
SPN: JTOWER’s Vietnamese in-building solutions company.
SREI Infrastructure Finance: SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited is a leading infrastructure financing conglomerate in India, and one of the first companies to lay the groundwork for telecoms infrastructure sharing. Prior to the sale to American Tower, SREI was the managing shareholder in Viom Networks, and merged with associate company Quippo in 2010.
Stilmark: Australian towerco. In June 2022 Stilmark was acquired by fellow Symphony Consortium member OMERS, and is to provide the platform on which OMERS will operate the 1,237 towers it acquired from TPG in May 2022.
STP (PT Solusi Tunas Pratama): Previously one of Indonesia’s largest independent towercos with a portfolio of 6,700 towers, 9000km of fibre and a modest portfolio of DAS sites. In September 2021, Protelindo announced that it had reached a deal to acquire a controlling interest in the towerco from investors Carlyle Group and Southern Cross and has since been integrated.
Summit Communications: Bangladeshi conglomerate that has a joint venture with TASC Towers. Brings a pre-existing relationship with the country's MNOs due to its work providing fibre-optic networks.
Summit Digitel: Indian towerco established in 2020 through Brookfield’s acquisition of Reliance Jio Infratel. Reliance Jio, India’s largest and fastest growing operator, is an anchor tenant on Summit Digitel’s portfolio under a 30-year MSA. The towerco enjoys something similar to a right of first refusal on the deployment requirements of the MNO in the future.
Summit Digitel currently owns a portfolio of 152,000 towers with a pipeline of around 30,000 new towers to be deployed over the next couple of years. Whilst many of Summit Digitel’s sites are monopoles or light poles with finite additional lease up capacity, many are in highly sought-after urban areas backed by “good paper” (clean land leases under sensible terms). Additionally, 60% of Summit Digitel’s sites are fiberised and 5G ready, considerably higher than the average in India where just 35% of sites are connected to fibre.
Summit TASC Towers: Joint venture between TASC Towers and Bangladeshi conglomerate Summit Group. One of Bangladesh’s towerco license holders. Of the three new Bangladeshi towercos, Summit TASC was the first to reach 1,000 new sites in mid 2022.
Sunsuper: Australian public offer industry superannuation fund which was part of the investment consortium that bought a 49% stake in Telstra’s tower business, Amplitel.
Symphony Consortium: Australian towerco consortium consisting of towerco Stilmark, their strategic investor, ATN International and Canadian pension fund OMERS.
TASC Towers: Dubai headquartered, emerging markets focussed towerco. TASC Towers has formed a joint venture with Summit Group in Bangladesh and is one of the country’s towerco license holders. TASC has also reached a deal with Zain to acquire towers in Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain, Sudan, and South Sudan.
Teletalk: Bangladesh’s newest MNO which is backed by the state.
Telkomesel: Indonesia’s largest MNO. Telkomsel is owned by Telkom and is a sister company to towerco, Mitratel. Telkomsel sold 6,050 towers to sister company Mitratel in 2020; 4,000 towers in 2021 and recently announced intentions for a further 6,000 towers in 2022.
Telenor: Norwegian headquartered mobile network operator with operations across both Europe and Asia. In Asia, Telenor has a footprint in Malaysia and Thailand and has recently exited its operations in Myanmar. In Malaysia, Telenor has recently signed an agreement to merge their opco, Digi, with Axiata’s Celcom. In Thailand, Telenor’s opco is DTAC. Telenor maintains a controlling interest in Bangladeshi MNO Grameenphone.
Telstra: Australia’s leading MNO which has recently carved out its tower assets into Amplitel. Telstra has sold a 49% stake in Amplitel to an investment consortium headed by Australia’s sovereign wealth Future Fund and featuring pension funds Commonwealth Superannuation Corp and Sunsuper.
Tillman Global Holdings (TGH): Multinational tower and infrastructure investment and operations firm led by Sanjiv Ahuja, former Chairman and co-founder of Eaton Towers and ex-CEO of Orange. In Asia, Tillman is an investor in Myanmar towerco, AP Towers.
Tower Bersama: Based in Indonesia, the Tower Bersama Group comprises several rolled up towercos all operated seamlessly under one management team. The company’s most recent deal in Indonesia was the acquisition of 3,000 towers from IBS Tower back in 2020. Alongside long-time investors provident capital, Tower Bersama’s parent company Bersama Digital secured new investment from PSP and Macquarie Asset Management.
The new shareholders are keen to support ASEAN wide growth for Bersama Digital, an ambition that was realised in July 2022 when Bersama Digital entered into a partnership with Opti-Teknology to acquire Alliance Towers in the Philippines. All signs point towards Tower Bersama becoming Asia’s next regional towerco.
Transcend Infrastructure Limited: American Tower subsidiary with a towerco license in the Philippines.
Tower Energy Co. Ltd: Subsidiary of China Tower Company responsible for power assurance and energy services. Tower Energy’s client base extends to China’s ever growing electric vehicle industry amongst other sectors.
Tower Vision: Indian towerco with a portfolio of around 8,600 sites. Tower Vision was one of the first towercos to enter the Indian market and has been rumoured to be a consolidation target for several years. Sister company of ESCO Energy Vision.
Tower Zhilian Technology Co., Ltd: Subsidiary of China Tower Corporation focussed on turning communication towers, to “social towers”, using IoT sensors to gather a wealth of data on the surrounding environment. Such data is being marketed to a diverse customer base, extending CTC’s client base beyond traditional MNOs.
TPG: US private equity firm whose investments count Myanmar towerco, AP Towers.
TPG Telecom: Australian operator formed from the merger of Vodafone Hutchison Australia and erstwhile TPG Telecom. TPG Telecom sold a 100% stake in their tower assets to OMERS in May 2022.
TrueMove: State-backed Thai MNO. Over a few transactions True has sold around 8,000 towers (as well as close to 30,000km of fibre) to the Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (formerly known as TRUEGIF). DIF also receives the revenues from a further 6,332 towers (and 65,000km fibre) owned by subsidiaries of True. True has a 28.9% stake in DIF which currently owns or receives revenues from a total of 16,059 towers.
TX Australia: No, not TowerXchange’s Australian subsidiary, TX Australia is a 70 site towerco that primarily operates large broadcast towers, but also serves MNOs as tenants.
Umobile: Malaysian MNO that is the most likely to be the seller of towers in the country.
Unity: Filipino towerco backed by local conglomerate Aboitz.
VEON: Netherlands-headquartered MNO with operations in Russia, Pakistan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Kyrgystan.
In their Q4 2020 results, VEON announced that it would create towerco business units in each of its nine markets, looking at ways to better crystallise the value of its tower portfolio. To date, the operator has carved out and sold towers in Russia whilst forming towerco units in the Ukraine and Pakistan. Alongside those three markets, Bangladesh represents a top priority in terms of value crystallisation. Following the sale of their Russian towers in 2021, it was announced that Bangladesh was not far behind, although no news has broken as of publishing.
Vertel: Australian telecommunication managed service provider that owns a portfolio of towers in the country.
Vietnamobile: Vietnamese operator with the smallest market share.
Viettel: Vietnam headquartered mobile network operator which operates as Metfone in Cambodia and Mytel in Myanmar (and has further operations in Africa and CALA). In Vietnam, Viettel’s subsidiary, Viettel Construction aims to become the number one towerco in Vietnam.
VNPT-Vinaphone: Vietnamese state-owned operator.
Vodafone: One of the world’s largest MNOs. In Asia, Vodafone has a presence in India (Vodafone Idea) and Australia (via its shareholding in TPG Telecom). Vodafone Idea sold towers to American Tower. In Australia, Vodafone sold towers to Axicom prior to merging with Hutchison and subsequently TPG Telecom. The newly merged TPG Telecom is reportedly considering a sale of its towers.
Vodafone New Zealand: Operator which, whilst operating under the Vodafone brand, is owned by Brookfield and Infratil. The MNO followed competitor Spark in announcing a planned tower sale in February 2022, and selling an 80% stake in their towers to InfraRed Capital and Northleaf Capital Partners.
Vodafone NZ TowerCo: New towerco formed from the sale of Vodafone New Zealand’s Tower assets. InfraRed Capital and Northleaf Capital Partners each own 40% of the towerco, and Infratil will use a portion of the profits from the sale to reinvest in 20% of the new business. With 1484 sites the new towerco is the largest owner of tower in New Zealand
XL: Axiata’s subsidiary in Indonesia. XL has completed a number of tower deals over the years, having sold towers to STP, Protelindo and Centratama. The operator retains c. 2,000 strategic sites in the country.
Zhejiang WanXing Group: A Chinese independent towerco based in Hangzhou City. the company has own around 700 towers and has its own R&D centre.
Have we missed anyone? Whilst we have endeavoured to profile all key MNOs, towercos and investors in the Asian tower industry in this who's who, please do let us know if we have missed you. Email Jack Haddon, Head of Asia Research at jack.haddon@towerxchange.com to be added to the guide.
