Asia Pacific: Regulators and Opex Pressures Push Mobile Operators into Infrastructure Sharing

Summary Asia-Pacific: Regulators and Opex Pressures Push Mobile Operators into Infrastructure Sharing, a Telecom Insider Report by Pyramid Research, analyzes the different types of infrastructure sharing setups prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region. It examines the factors driving telecom operators to share infrastructure, the obstacles to doing so and the threat of anticompetitive outcomes, and a brief comparison of Asia-Pacific with other regions. The report offers information on the prevalent forms infrastructure sharing takes, on recent deals involving passive and active sharing, on deals involving tower offloading by operators, and on the major tower companies in the region. The Insider provides three case studies to illustrate the various drivers and benefits involved in infrastructure sharing. Key Findings - Mobile infrastructure sharing can help telecom operators reduce their operating expenses by 20-30% and capital expenditures by as much as 40%. However, factors such as the physical landscape and the stage of mobile network deployment can make it difficult to forecast savings in absolute terms. - In Asia-Pacific, most infrastructure sharing deals have been voluntary, although there are a few countries such as China where the regulator, aiming to optimize use of scarce resources, has made the sharing of passive infrastructure mandatory. In other countries - Hong Kong, Singapore - the regulator intervenes by directing operators to share infrastructure if overall it benefits citizens or the environment. - Passive infrastructure sharing has remained more common in Asia-Pacific mainly because of its cost benefits, its relatively lower complexity and the unwillingness of bigger players to share their networks with smaller players. - Active sharing is gaining momentum, driven by the need of LTE deployments for huge investments and the obligations, mainly pertaining to coverage, that governments impose through spectrum licenses. - Tower offloading is a growing trend in Asia-Pacific: operators are selling or spinning off their tower assets to focus on their core businesses and to reduce costs. Synopsis Asia-Pacific: Regulators and Opex Pressures Push Mobile Operators into Infrastructure Sharing, a Telecom Insider Report by Pyramid Research, analyzes the various types of infrastructure sharing, the operational and economic benefits as well as the risks and concerns of operators around sharing their infrastructure assets. The report also explains the factors supporting and hindering infrastructure sharing, with examples from several markets. The report is organized as follows: - Introduction: This section explains infrastructure sharing and the forms it takes. - Operational and economic benefits of mobile infrastructure sharing: This section analyzes the value proposition of infrastructure sharing, looking at benefits such as opex and capex efficiencies and coverage expansion. - Obstacles to mobile infrastructure sharing, and the threat to competition: This section analyzes the potential obstacles to infrastructure sharing and the possibility of anticompetitive effects. - Mobile infrastructure sharing in Asia-Pacific: This section provides a regional overview of Asia-Pacific, explaining the region in a global context, the regulatory environment in select countries, recent active and passive infrastructure sharing agreements and tower offloading deals. - Case studies: This section comprises three case studies explaining the factors that drive infrastructure sharing. - Key findings and recommendations: This section provides the reports findings on the infrastructure sharing markets in Asia-Pacific along with Pyramid Researchs recommendations for operators, tower companies, regulators and equipment vendors. Reasons To Buy - The Telecom Insider report Asia-Pacific: Regulators and Opex Pressures Push Mobile Operators into Infrastructure Sharing investigates the factors driving infrastructure sharing based on a comprehensive, detailed understanding of the mobile telecommunications markets in the Asia-Pacific region. - The reports survey of local developments in mobile network deployment, management and outsourcing provides a resource for more detailed planning, while its actionable analysis of current trends offers a wider perspective. - The report lists recent agreements for active and passive infrastructure sharing as well as tower offloading deals by operators, helping executives understand the markets where infrastructure sharing arrangements are more keenly pursued. - The reports key findings allow operators, tower companies, vendors and regulators to extract the crucial trends in network sharing in Asia-Pacific, while its forward-looking recommendations help them develop effective longer-term strategies for their networks.