The market size for telecom tower construction is $20.3 billion globally.
The installed base of telecom towers is growing at a CAGR of 4.1 percent to 5 million in 2020 from 4 million at present.
There will be double digit growth in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, while Asia telecom markets will see volume.
The current hotspot for independent tower ownership (then leased back to MNOs) is sub-Saharan Africa, where some $30 billion in infrastructure transactions are currently under review.
The independent tower industry is emerging in North America and Europe.
Recently, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicorn floated a joint venture in China.
In Africa, 30 percent of all telecoms towers could be independently operated by 2020.
In India, a tower joint venture among Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular was floated some time back.
Currently, 18 percent of all telecoms towers globally are independently operated.
The growth of telecom tower is supported by 7 billion mobile subscriptions. Telecom operators generate service revenues of nearly $1,000 billion each year. 74 percent of users are in emerging markets.
China and India together account for almost one-third of all users (18 percent and 14 percent respectively), emerging Asia another 15 percent, Africa 11 percent, South America 10 percent and the Middle East 5 percent.
Towers constitute almost 50 percent of the total capital expenditure for a mobile operator.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
