The Next Wave of Value Creation for Asia-Pacific Towercos

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The Next Wave of Value Creation for Asia-Pacific Towercos

Posted on September 22, 20255 min Read

For years, the tower industry was seen as one of telecom’s most stable businesses. Predictable cash flows, long-term leases, and favorable financing made tower companies (towercos) highly attractive investments. But the era of rapid buildouts and large-scale mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is slowing.

New construction has tapered off in several markets, lease rates are facing pressure, and higher interest rates are weighing on investor appetite. At the same time, operator consolidation and active network sharing are reducing tenancy ratios.

These shifts are pushing towercos in the Asia Pacific to redefine their role to suit the region’s demographics, digital habits, and technological adoption.

Meeting the Needs of a Digital-First Population

The Asia Pacific is home to some of the world’s heaviest mobile data consumers, with India, Nepal, and Bhutan leading globally at around 32 GB per smartphone per month in 2024, according to Ericsson’s Mobility Report. Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia & Oceania also show high consumption levels, averaging 20–22 GB monthly, supported by 5G rollouts in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. The GSMA forecasts that mobile data traffic across the Asia Pacific will quadruple by 2030, driven by increasing smartphone penetration, affordable data plans, and data-intensive activities such as streaming, mobile payments, and cloud services.

Video now dominates mobile traffic, with short-form platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts driving much of the surge. Industry forecasts expect mobile video consumption to keep climbing sharply, particularly in Southeast Asia. The OTT video market alone is projected to reach USD 4.81 billion in 2025 and expand at a 6.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2030, with users expected to hit over 500 million. At the same time, digital video advertising spend is forecast to climb from USD 2.59 billion in 2025 to USD 3.47 billion by 2030, with much of that growth coming from mobile formats.

As immersive applications, cloud services, and AI-powered devices gain ground, this network demand will only intensify, necessitating denser, smarter, and more resilient infrastructure.

From Rent Collectors to Value Creators

Towercos are beginning to address these demands with new services that go beyond passive site leasing. Energy is one key focus. Power remains one of the largest operating costs for mobile networks, accounting for 30–34% of tower companies’ OpEx in India and, in some cases, 45–55% of network costs due to high diesel use and cooling demands.

To cut these costs and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, tower operators in China and India are piloting renewable, hybrid, and energy-as-a-service (EaaS) models to cut costs while supporting sustainability goals.

In India, Indus Towers is deploying 300 zero-emission aluminum-air energy systems, investing in solar sites, microgrids, lithium-ion storage, and fuel cell backup solutions, while regulations are opening pathways for green energy procurement. In China, China Tower and Huawei have tested intelligent energy platforms that integrate solar access, hybrid batteries, peak shaving, and intelligent storage to reduce grid dependency and costs, with rural towers already adopting solar solutions.

Unlocking Opportunities in 5G and Beyond

5G is scaling rapidly across the region. Malaysia’s national wholesale model has already achieved broad population coverage, and the Philippines reports strong 5G availability in urban centers. 5G’s shorter range requires denser deployments and more indoor systems, both of which are areas where towercos can step in. Open RAN and cloud-native architectures further expand towercos’ potential role.

By hosting neutral equipment layers, power systems, and fiber connections, towercos can help operators deploy next-generation networks more efficiently.

Mobile network operators (MNOs) need high-capacity, low-latency links to their base stations and if the towerco owns this fiber, it can bundle services so MNOs don’t have to build or lease backhaul separately, making the tower and fiber site move attractive. In Indonesia, leading towercos have paired their tower portfolios with extensive fiber networks, making sites more valuable to operators and boosting tenancy resilience. For instance, Mitratel, which manages 37,000 towers, has expanded its fiber coverage by acquiring 6,012 km of fiber, connecting 2,436 towers across 86 cities.

Interesting Read: EdgePoint Philippines’ CEO Drives Digital Infrastructure Growth in the Country

In-building coverage (IBC) is also gaining importance. With most data consumed indoors, small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS) are becoming essential. Neutral-host deployments in venues and urban hotspots are being encouraged by regulators across the Asia Pacific, making coverage more efficient while reducing duplication. In Hong Kong, the Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill 2023 empowers the regulator to grant operators access to reserved spaces in new or redeveloped buildings; in Australia, the ACCC is reviewing tower access rules; and India’s updated Right of Way rules simplify permissions for small cell rollout and street furniture use.

Together, these new towerco value propositions directly address operator pain points.

Read More: AI-RAN and the Rise of Smarter Towers

Expanding the Customer Base

While mobile operators remain core clients, new customer groups are emerging. Enterprises are adopting private 5G for factories, ports, and campuses, while governments are supporting neutral-host deployments in public spaces and transport systems. Cloud providers, meanwhile, are looking for edge-ready sites with power and fiber access to host micro data centers closer to end users.

The next wave of value creation for towercos in the Asia Pacific will not come from tower volume alone. Instead, it will depend on their ability to integrate site, power, and transport into packaged services, scale neutral-host indoor systems, prepare sites for edge computing, and support enterprise private networks.

By stepping beyond rent collection and aligning more closely with operator and enterprise needs, towercos can position themselves as indispensable enablers of the region’s digital future.

5G China Tower DAS digital economy edge computing Energy-as-a-Service fiber networks Indus Towers Infrastructure Mitratel Neutral Host telecom Telecom Strategy Towercos

For years, the tower industry was seen as one of telecom’s most stable busin