The Americas Telecom Tower industry: a new frontier for towercos
At the 11th annual Meetup Americas, TowerXchange delved into critical topics shaping the future of telecommunications infrastructure in Latin America, covering energy-as-a-service, 5G deployment, and collaboration among towercos, carriers, and government entities.
Key discussions revolved around several pressing questions:
- Market Dynamics: Which Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) will be next to bring their towers to market?
- Resilience in Challenging Markets: How can towercos demonstrate resilience in Latin America's more challenging markets.
- Energy Solutions: What is being deployed to power tower infrastructure in remote and off-grid locations? How is renewable energy and energy-efficiency affecting operational sustainability and reducing costs.
- Regulation & municipalities: What role will governments play in fostering a conducive environment for towercos and carriers to drive growth in the municipalities.
- Collaboration for growth: Best practices for collaboration between towercos, carriers, and governments to accelerate network expansion and improve connectivity across the region.
Join us in 2025 as we explore the next stage of towerco growth and activity in the world's frontier towerco region.
Who attended in 2024?
10 key takeaways from our speakers and contributors
1. Collaboration between towercos, mobile network operators (MNOs), and regulators is crucial for fostering network development, addressing challenges, and improving regulations.
2. Educating communities and local authorities about the importance of critical infrastructure and addressing concerns about towers is necessary for streamlining permitting processes.
3. Sharing infrastructure, including towers, energy solutions, and data, is essential for cost-effective 5G deployment and bridging the digital divide in underserved areas.
4. Maintaining safety standards, providing training, and implementing best practices for contractors and tower climbers is a significant challenge that needs to be addressed by the whole industry across the region.
5. Spectrum availability and allocation play a pivotal role in enabling 5G rollout across Latin America, with countries at different stages of readiness. 60% of countries still have steps to take before spectrum is available to enable more rollout.
6. The workforce needs to be upskilled and expanded to meet the demands of 5G deployment, including expertise in fibre deployment, in-building solutions, and emerging technologies. When 5G deployment ramps up the industry is in danger of not being ready.
7. Financing and capital access are crucial for towercos, with a deep and interesting panel opening day two. Trends identified were towards sustainability-linked financing, joint venture financing, and partnerships to support the capital-intensive nature of the industry.
8. Currency volatility and inflation impact towercos' operations, necessitating risk management strategies like matching local-currency debt and exploring hedging options.
9. Diversification into adjacent businesses, such as fibre, data centers or power solutions, requires careful evaluation of synergies, growth potential, and capex requirements to ensure value creation.
10. Technology is a key enabler of operational excellence but the haphazard construction and management of some towers which have been constructed over the years poses challenges to rolling out best practices.
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What people have to say about TowerXchange Meetup Americas
"The Roundtables were brilliantly aligned with the current industry needs, and enabled very comprehensive and actionable discussions and insights."
Ricardo Machado, Acernis
"My favourite part is the opportunity to gain different perspectives within the industry and to get to know the players in the tower industry."
Tiago Silva, Fisola
"This event is a great opportunity to learn from other peoples experiences - it certainly helped me understand some of the challenges I face"
Simon Robinson, Cellnex
Find out more about our 2025 plans
Drive brand visibility and connect with top-tier professionals at TowerXchange Meetup Americas 2025. Showcase your expertise, forge lucrative partnerships, and accelerate sales growth through targeted sponsorship opportunities. Enquire now to discuss your plans.