edotco to build up to 2,000 towers this year

CYBERJAYA: edotco Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which launched its first shared network connectivity site for mobile network operators (MNO) yesterday, aims to build 1,000 to 2,000 towers across Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Myanmar this year.
“Last year, within the five countries namely Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Pakistan, a total of 1,700 structures were built. Out of this, 250 were built in Malaysia,” group CEO Suresh Sidhu told reporters at the launch yesterday.
This year, edotco aims to build up to 2,000 structures across the six countries where it operates, with 200 to 300 structures to be built in Malaysia.
The regional tower services provider is a wholly owned subsidiary of Axiata Group Bhd, with over 16,000 towers in the six countries. In Malaysia, it has over 3,600 sites nationwide.
Suresh said the company is investing RM5 million to implement 22 shared network connectivity sites in Cyberjaya, which will be the first township with a masterplan wireless solution.
He said the implementation is already 40-50% completed and expects to fully implement all 22 sites by end of June, after which network operators can rapidly offer high speed internet and 4G LTE connectivity without major investment.
The solution, described as a base transceiver station (BTS) hotel, aggregates fixed and wireless traffic resources into a single location to provide shared network connectivity to the operators.
Benefits of the solution include faster deployment of a plug and play model, common radio frequency antenna sharing, enhanced network coverage and capacity within the vicinity, and up to 35% savings compared with traditional sites deployment.
“We hope to help the country with Putrajaya but let’s see, that is work in progress. I think the next thing you will see is probably in Johor, Nusajaya, where we will deploy the next installation. In terms of other countries, the countries that have an opportunity here, are likely to be Pakistan and Bangladesh,” said Suresh.
He said edotco aims to deploy the solution in Pakistan and Bangladesh by year-end or early 2017. In Nusajaya, it hopes to put up the first BTS hotel structure latest by first quarter of 2017 and have complete coverage in the township within two to three years.