IHS Towers is one of the largest independent owners, operators and developers of shared communications infrastructure in the world.
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years of experience
Our experience has provided us with over two decades of insight, extensive operational talent, and strong relationships with stakeholders that enables us to enhance our position in existing and new markets. To deliver for our customers, as well as generate strong financial performance, we draw on our key strengths:
We are dedicated to engineering excellence and provide a wide range of communications infrastructure solutions and managed services to enable our customers to achieve their connectivity goals, including:
IHS Towers helps bring the power of mobile connectivity to millions of people, accelerating the digitalization of economies through the acquisition, management and construction of critical national infrastructure.
Emerging markets represent some of the fastest growing wireless communications opportunities with growing demand from subscribers for data services and increasing access to smartphones driving demand for wireless communications infrastructure.
GSMA estimates that 98 million new unique mobile subscribers are expected in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2021 and 2025, a further 44 million in the Middle East and North Africa and 37 million in Latin America by 2025. In many of our markets, we continue to see 4G penetration rising ahead of the onset of 5G penetration. The combination of low existing penetration, high subscriber growth and strong increase in demand for data services, supports major investment opportunities at every point along the mobile supply chain – from handsets to tower infrastructure.
Even in Kuwait, where 5G is rolling out and smartphone penetration is among the highest in the Middle East, customers demand high data plans as early adopters of new technology. As new technology becomes available and carriers increase bandwidth, data usage is expected to continue to increase, requiring additional infrastructure.
Connecting people and their communities
Mobile use throughout emerging markets, and the towers that enable it, are not just a business story; they are a social phenomenon, as mobile connectivity empowers people economically, and links them and their communities to each other and the world beyond. Improving education throughout emerging markets is at the heart of solving many economic, social and healthcare problems. Increasingly, mobile communications are understood to be key to remote learning in rural portions of the world and connectivity remains integral to e-banking, mobile money and insurance platforms to name just a few.
Customer focused
Our primary customers are the leading mobile network operators (MNOs) and other communications service providers in each of our markets. Our success in establishing deep customer relationships and operational excellence has enabled us to grow both organically and through 22 transactions, building a footprint that currently covers 10 markets across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. We are the third largest independent TowerCo globally by tower count, the leader in seven of our markets and the only independent multinational operator in five of these markets.
Market-leading uptime
In Europe or the US, network downtime is a rare inconvenience. However, in emerging markets where there are far fewer fixed lines, less broadband penetration and at times an unreliable power supply, network downtime can have far reaching implications.
Long-term thinking
The story of mobile connectivity in emerging markets, and therefore our story, is still in its early days. We endeavor to play a vital role in the future development and continued growth of these markets.
