Excellence in telecoms passive infrastructure management recognised at the TowerXchange Industry Awards

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Winners of the inaugural TowerXchange Industry awards were announced at the TowerXchange Meetup Africa & Middle East in Johannesburg last week, recognising excellence in the management of the world’s telecom towers.

Over 50 nominations were received for the eight categories with a lifetime achievement award being presented to Chuck Green, Executive Chairman of Helios Towers Africa for his role in evangelising the independent towerco mode in Africa, as well as his previous achievements in the US and Europe.

“Our congratulations to all of the winners and shortlisted entries in the inaugural TowerXchange Industry Awards” said Kieron Osmotherly, Founder & CEO of TowerXchange. “The calibre of the entrants speaks volumes as to all the hard work that operators, towercos and the supply chain are doing to improve the management of passive infrastructure in an industry whose margins are being increasingly squeezed. We would like to thank all of our entrants and judges for the contributions to the awards”

The winners of the 2016 awards are:

MNO passive infrastructure team of the year: Telenor Pakistan
Judges comments: Telenor Pakistan have pioneered RANsharing and promoted passive site sharing, saving US$1.6mn, and fibre sharing, saving US$5mn per year while maintaining 99% network availability

Most innovative towerco of the year (tied): Fanasia and FPS Towers  
Judges comments: Fanasia have developed a landmark decommissioning and revenue sharing business model in Iran whilst FPS Towers have pioneered the professionalisation of alternative site typologies in France

Build to suit towerco of the year: Atlas Tower
Judges comments: Atlas Tower have achieved an impressive organic growth rate unsurpasses anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa

Tower transaction of the year: IHS and MTN Nigeria
Judges comments: IHS leveraged an innovative deal structure to close the largest, most impactful tower transaction in the history of African towers

Operational efficiency solution of the year: Vodacom South Africa
Judges comments: A commendable focus on HSE led Vodacom to research develop and rollout pioneering drone site surveys, eliminating the need for physical site climbing and accelerating site surveys

Site upgrade of the year:  Indosat Ooredoo
Judges comments: Upgrading 3000 sites, Indosat Ooredoo’s Jaguar Project (Radio Access Modernisation) undertook extensive tower strengthening and ground rectification in record time.

Green initiative of the year (3 way tie): Ascot for IHS; Bharti Infratel and Huawei
Judges comments: One of this year’s most popular categories, judge’s opinion was split. In a project of unprecedented scale for SSA, Ascot have replaced diesel generators running 23/7 at 2400 IHS sites with solar hybrid units yielding a 76% reduction in carbon emissions; Bharti Infratel have run a landmark energy efficiency initiative greening 38% of their portfolio of 33,750 sites; whilst Huawei have designed an holistic approach to energy efficiency combining modular renewables, a 98% efficient rectifier and enhance cooling systems

Excellence in procurement: Vodafone
Judges comments: Vodafone Procurement Company unlocks the expertise and experience of Vodafone’s collective supply chain management wisdom with an holistic set of services tailored to meet the needs of towercos

Lifetime achievement award: Chuck Green, Executive Chairman, Helios Towers Africa
TowerXchange’s comments: The lifetime achievement award was presented to someone without whom there would be no African tower industry - and no TowerXchange! Chuck has been a visionary and spokesperson for the tower industry since it’s inception, and we are proud to recognise his unique contribution.