Edotco to bring carbon fibre telecom towers

Edotco Bangladesh plans to install carbon-fibre towers on rooftops in Bangladesh soon, which will be a milestone in the company's pursuit of establishing innovative telecom infrastructure in the region.

Currently, it is installing its first ground-based carbon fibre towers in Taman Tasik Prima, Puchong in Malaysia, which will be the first of its type in Asia.

“We aim to start installing the carbon fibre rooftop structures in Bangladesh in September,” said Mohammad Manzoorul Islam, director operations of Edotco Bangladesh, a tower management company.

“This innovation is a great solution to the building constraints here in Bangladesh.”

These towers' weight will be 70 percent less than conventional steel structures. It will also reduce the foundation requirements by half, while providing high strength to weight ratio. The company is investing in high quality infrastructure and encouraging tower sharing, where the tenancy ratio has improved to 1:3 now.

This structure has high rigidity with a tensile strength 10 times more than steel, allowing load bearing with the structure able to better withstand harsher forces of nature.

It will also reduce installation time; overall it is 40 percent to 50 percent faster to put a carbon fibre structure, they added.

These features result in 20 percent lower total cost of ownership. As Edotco gains experience in the deployment of carbon fibre towers, customisation requirements will lessen, bringing the company closer to its target of 40 percent in total cost of ownership reduction. It is always experimenting with materials and innovative solutions to address the challenges of the telecom infrastructure industry. Given its lightweight nature, carbon fibre is ideal for rooftop deployment where load is a concern.

In 2012, Edotco was established as the first regional and integrated telecom infrastructure company in Asia, providing end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector from tower leasing.

Edotco Bangladesh bought mobile phone operator Robi's towers last year. This year, Robi is diluting its shares from the joint venture with Edotco.

Currently, they have 16,000 towers in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Myanmar. It is constantly innovating to increase the efficiency of telecom infrastructure use and expand connectivity in the region.