America Tower Corporation acquire Viom

India: Viom networks Limited previously called the Wireless TT Info services is a telecom infrastructure company of Indian origin. The company offers systems, networks and services pertaining to telecommunication infrastructure, equipment that allow transmission of voice and data. America Tower Corporation (ATC), a United States owner and operator and provides multi-tenant communications. The two have developed a virtual team to perform its operations in India.

Viom holds over 42,000 telecom towers and ATC has a hold over 14,000 towers. The merger of the two entities would result in 56,000 towers. Further, allowing ATC to have control of about 51% of Viom and 100% of ATC India. Subsequently, the two companies would merge allowing ATC to own 65% of its Indian Unit and rest to be owned by Tata Tele Services, IDFC and Macquarie.

The merger which is expected to take a year lays emphasis on allowing ATC to be the leading name in the market capturing the maximum number of towers. It further, focuses on bringing in the best practices and IP. ATC aims at bringing more towers for 3G and 4G services in future.

TechSci Research analyzes that the merger to be step towards better telecom services for the users as well as the acquisition is expected to enhance the overall share of ATC in Indian telecom tower market.

Further, India is a very competitive market in Asia region. Rising mobile data consumption coupled with increase in deployment of 4G services is putting pressure on the existing network infrastructure in India. In addition, other countries in the region such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar are also witnessing the exponential growth in telecom tower deployment.

According to a recent report published by TechSci Research, “Telecom Towers Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2020 – Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar” telecom tower market in Myanmar is projected to witness fastest CAGR of over 28% during 2015-20 among these four countries. Indonesia has the largest mobile network in Southeast Asia and represents one of the largest markets for telecom towers in the region. Myanmar, on the other hand, is expected to demonstrate a robust growth in number of telecom tower installations during the coming years, on account of growing smartphone penetration, declining tariffs and entry of new telecom operators in the market. In Cambodia, where electrification ratio is very low, companies are focusing towards installation off grid telecom towers, which run on renewable sources.