Apollo Towers Myanmar was founded in 2013 to provide mobile infrastructure like towers and power solutions to mobile operators in Myanmar. It currently has over 1,750 towers. A key challenge is expanding coverage to rural areas, which requires overcoming issues like unstable borders, complex land ownership laws, and noise complaints. Apollo is addressing these challenges through infrastructure sharing, negotiating land agreements, and investing in silent generators. It has also received a $250 million loan from OPIC, demonstrating its ability to meet high operational and regulatory standards.

1. 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

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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. 

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

6. www.apollo-towers.com