VEON-owned Beeline’s tower carve-out and sale strategy is becoming ever clearer in Central Asia, and it is possible that Uzbekistan could become a model for tower growth.
VEON’s strategic goal to have an asset-light, digitally-led business model is being fulfilled.
This strategy is being implemented in Uzbekistan, where VEON’s MNO company Beeline has established a new entity to manage its existing towers and to facilitate further portfolio expansion. Beeline is replicating its strategy in Kazakhstan, where it has around 1,500 towers, according to the company.
The recently established National Tower Infrastructure (NTI) has received the majority of Beeline’s tower assets, comprising approximately 4,000 towers. This places NTI in a unique position as the leading tower company in Uzbekistan and the first of its kind on a nationwide scale. The company anticipates the addition of new towers to its portfolio in response to demand.
5G perfect timing
Uzbekistan is home to a five-MNO market: Beeline, Mobiuz, Ucell, Uzbmobile and Perfectum. Sayan Mukhametzhanov, Chief Technical Officer, NTI tells TowerXchange that he expects a robust demand for its current towers, and an equally promising outlook for future tower construction. Particularly with the awarding of 5G licenses to operators who will start roll-out in the coming years. “We can help other MNOs with their 5G roll-out plans”, says Mukhametzhanov. The majority of existing towers are currently utilized for 4G services, but there is a growing recognition of the need to plan for 5G.
“Ground-based towers around 60% of our footprint mostly seen in the suburbs with some located in the larger cities like Tashkent, Bukhara and Samarkand,” he adds. “We’re currently building 16 ground-based towers in the capital.” NTI also has rooftop towers in its portfolio, seen mostly in the urban areas of the country. These rooftop structures are upwards of 21m, says Mukhametzhanov.
A significant proportion of the NTI tower assets are currently available and able to accommodate another tenant, presenting a potentially lucrative opportunity for investors in the event of a sale of NTI by VEON.
Central Asia ambitions
NTI is examining the possibility of infrastructure sharing with Uzmobile, Mobiuz, Perfectum and Ucell. Some MNOs had previously established limited tower sharing arrangements with Beeline. NTI is now seeking to expand the scope of its cooperation with other MNOs.
Central Asia is the region least penetrated by the telecom tower model. TowerXchange estimates just 1.3% of the 33,350 towers in the five Central Asian countries are owned by towercos. In fact, outside Russia, the tower model is rare in all ex-Soviet states. North of Uzbekistan is Kazakhstan, a country home to 19 million people (Uzbekistan’s population is around 37 million) and also where Beeline has carved out a tower company in Q4 2023 in an effort to expand its tower assets before future sale.
VEON’s carve-out projects in both Kazakhstan and especially Uzbekistan – two countries with emerging digital demand and potential – demonstrate that Central Asia is facing an exciting period of tower growth and transactional activity.
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Read the latest of what is happening across Asia, inside TowerXchange’s Q2 2024 Asia Regional Guide. Click here to read.
