A few months ago, Orange MEA started a project to learn more about their passive infrastructure footprint, understanding the constraints of their towers across their African and Middle Eastern markets. Towercos have seen great success in expanding their presence across the Africa with almost 50% of towers now in the hands of towerocs. Major operators such as Airtel, MTN, stc and Ooredoo are either selling or carving-out their tower assets, with more MNOs followng suit.
Orange have always seen the strategic value in their tower infrastructure and have only on occasion sold their towers; of the 38,000 towers covering 17 MEA countries, only 4,000 have been sold.