Saudi ICT infrastructure company Tawal is planning to build about 200 new towers in the Kingdom every year, to keep pace with the sector’s expansion needs, CEO Mohammed Alhakbani told Argaam.
The company is working to participate in major projects in the Kingdom, such as NEOM, Al-Qiddiya, Red Sea, Amaala and AlUla, he said.
There are more than 35,000 communications towers in Saudi Arabia, and Tawal owns about 45 percent of them, Alhakbani said.
The company’s net income margin ranges from 15-to-20 percent, a strong performance compared with the profit margins and returns for the most efficient international companies, he said.
The first dedicated telecom tower company in the Kingdom recently adopted its sustainability strategy that consists of improving access to high-speed digital services for the entire community, being committed to environmental standards and contributing to local economic development by supporting and raising the proportion of local content it uses, he said.
At NEOM, Tawal has started the construction of 60 new sites that operate entirely on solar energy, Alhakbani said.
Tawal is using hybrid energy solutions consisting of batteries and generators for 850 sites, with the aim of reaching more than 1,000 locations through 2021, he said.
More than 300 diesel generators have also been converted and connected to the electricity grid, with a further 100 to be added by the end of 2021, while renewable energy is increasingly being used across its network, he said.
Tawal is also working on promoting the sharing of communication towers to reduce duplication, he said.
Source: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1910481/business-economy