APOLLO TOWERS MYANMAR

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APOLLO TOWERS MYANMAR WAS FOUNDED IN 2013

BY SANJIV AHUJA, THE FORMER CEO OF ORANGE AS

WELL AS THE FOUNDER OF EATON TOWERS AFRICA.

TODAY APOLLO TOWERS IS AN INDEPENDENT LICENSED

TOWERS COMPANY WHOSE OBJECTIVE IS TO PROVIDE

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MOBILE OPERATORS IN

MYANMAR.

We provide the towers and the power, the steel for the structures and power solutions to keep them running,” explains Yves Monnier, the company’s Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer. “In our current portfolio we have more than 1,750 towers and we are completing an order to reach 1,800.”

Monnier is convinced that it is the complete package Apollo offers is what puts them ahead of the competition.

“Our main selling point is that we offer tower and power,” he says. “When we launched over two years ago we were only 2 towercos to offer this. Whereas our other competitors were only providing towers, with power handled by a third party, we offered a full service and also provided operation and management services to all the operators in Myanmar.”

Mobile coverage is an exciting sector to be working in, and there can be few more exciting places to work there than in Myanmar. The country has seen huge growth in the mobile sector since Apollo’s inception.

“Today we see that the demand from the operators is increasing in terms of capacity and coverage.

So they will need to increase and adapt their network to offer more capacity and coverage for their customers,” Monnier says. “In less than 20 months the market has experienced growth of more than 100%.

The mobile telecom market achieved a market penetration rate of almost 90%, i.e. 45 million SIM card users, as of June 2016 – it is a great achievement. But the market is very demanding in terms of mobile data, so the operators need to have good coverage in the city and the countryside.

The number of smart phones is increasing in Myanmar. More and more customers in rural areas are asking for data.”

THE RURAL FRONTIER

To achieve that coverage in rural areas is Apollo Towers’ current big challenge, and it brings with it a number of subsidiary challenges.

“Now Myanmar is a Union of States that borders onto India, Bangladesh, China and Thailand” Monnier says. “Those states on the borders are sometimes unstable, making it quite difficult for towercos to build and perform basic Operation and maintenance services, in these

A Giant Leap for Mobile Infrastructure Apollo Tower Myanmar is making sure you can get mobile signal in Myanmar wherever you are.

[ BUSINESS FOCUS_APOLLO TOWERS MYANMAR ]

Yves Monnier

[ APOLLO TOWERS MYANMAR ]

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Mer Myanmar

T +95-(0)1543139 / +95-(0)9254389906 mermyanmar_admin@mer-telecom.com

www.mer-group.com

Global Communication & Security Solutions

Cyber

Renewable Energy

Infrastructure Communications

LTE

Fiber Optics

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unsecured zones. Another issue we have to contend with is about land ownership. When we go into rural areas we have to find out who the real owner of the land is and this can take a very long time and a number of attempts, and then once we find them we need to sort out this way of handling a really complex situation to comply with Myanmar Laws and Regulations.”

You see, even once Apollo Towers has found someone with land that would be useful for their work, the job doesn’t end there.

Monnier points out, “Myanmar is a country which has a farming economy. Agriculture is very powerful, has a big weight in this country. The government has enacted laws, which almost make it impossible to build on agricultural land, especially paddy fields. The same is true of government, military and religious land.”

The solution is one that has come out of a spirit of innovation and cooperation.

“The country has adapted and issued the current law to be sure that if we respect this process, when you find the land where it is possible to build, then your towers will be shareable by the other operators,” Monnier says. “The market in rural areas is less wealthy than those in urban areas so they are very sensitive to pricing. So sharing the infrastructure will save cost for the value chain.”

Land isn’t the only challenge Apollo must navigate however. They also need to show consideration for the people living near their towers, which can be an issue when the towers also need to provide their own power supply.

“If there is noise from generators it can create complaints from local communities, so then we need to shut down the site during the night and invest a lot in batteries to shift the site into a silent mode at nights,” Monnier tells us. “To counter this we are trying to get grid or electric lines as close as possible to our sites. We invest in transformers with local electricity companies. In some cases we have built walls around generators in the village. Also we buy some silent generators. But a silent generator will never be truly silent. There is no perfect solution where we can’t

connect towers to the grid.”

TOWERING ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Behind all of Apollo Towers Myanmar’s efforts is a dedicated, well trained team of expert staff. Acquiring that team has been a huge part of the Apollo Towers project. While local skilled staff are hard to come by, Apollo has been working to bring back Myanmar’s expat talents.

“The way we do it is first we hire locals according to their CVs and experience,” Monnier tells us. “Especially overseas experience - repats are a great source of recruitment. They have good English knowledge which is important for us, and also they are willing to learn and to progress. But ultimately we look at their potential more than their experience because when the market opened up here two years ago we didn’t have so many local skills. So you have to train them. Some of them are coming from operators others are coming from vendors, power suppliers etc. We provide them with a good working environment, be fair with them, they are happy to come and work in a company that is based in Myanmar but is in many ways a foreign enterprise.”

Those staff joining the team today will find they’ve come on board Apollo Towers Myanmar at a very interesting time. Monnier is enthusiastic about recent developments.

“The last 12 months have been very interesting with lots of adventure,” he says. “The main news for us is we’ve been able to sign the agreement with OPIC. This it is the first time that OPIC is granting a loan to a company based in Myanmar, the loan is about 250 million dollars. To get this kind of loan from the US Government means we have to comply with a lot of Rules, Standards and Regulations. We’re doing everything according to the highest standards. We’re also working with a strong health and safety process. The company is very proud that we have followed these processes and that we’re managing the company in a Western style.”

Something tells us this is only the beginning.

[ APOLLO TOWERS MYANMAR ]

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“ Today we see that the demand from the operators is increasing in terms of capacity and coverage.”

www.apollo-towers.com