Cable & Wireless Optus today announced it would sell its mobile tower sites to Crown Castle Australia for $200 million, creating significant value from its original investment in network rollout.
In the first real estate and infrastructure management deal of its type in Australia, Crown Castle Australia will acquire around 700 towers from Cable & Wireless Optus.
The deal will see Cable & Wireless Optus maintain ownership and operation of the equipment located on the towers including electronics, antennas, transmitters and other base station infrastructure. Crown Castle Australia will take over responsibility for security, tower and ground maintenance as well as site leasing arrangements.
Keir Preedy, Director Mobile Network, Cable & Wireless Optus said, "Building the best mobile network in Australia is about delivering quality service to our customers - not managing real estate. This deal is great for us as it lets us focus on our core business."
"As Australia's fastest growing mobile network, with over 2.4 million customers, we are continuing to aggressively extend our network, strengthening our network coverage and capacity. This will ensure we continue to meet our network quality targets," Mr Preedy said.
"The Crown Castle deal reflects similar arrangements overseas, which allow carriers to focus on their core business of customer satisfaction. The arrangement also allows us to unlock some of the value created in rolling out our physical network, with a substantial profit - most of which will be realised in the next financial year," he said.
As part of the agreement, Crown Castle will manage the continuing 'real estate' risk of the sites, and will also have the option to buy or manage any further tower sites that Cable & Wireless Optus may rollout over the next six years.
Cable & Wireless Optus will retain full management control of the balance of its more than 2000 base stations in Australia.
Cable & Wireless Optus has spent more than $240 million building in excess of 500 base stations so far this financial year. Next financial year the company plans to build more than 700 base stations, spending more than $350 million. Optus has already invested over $1.6 billion in its GSM digital mobile network.
For more information:
Stephen Woodhill
Cable & Wireless Optus
Phone: (02) 9342 7850
Backgrounder
What is a tower site?
In some areas, base station antennas need to be attached to a mast or tower in order to provide mobile service to a geographic area. The base station electronics are housed in an equipment shelter located near the base of the tower.
What is a base station?
A mobile base station is essentially a radio transmitter/receiver and antenna which transmits and receives radio frequency (RF) or electromagnetic (EM) signals from mobile phones. It provides coverage to a geographic area known as cell that varies in radius from 100 metres to 35 kilometres. As the user of a mobile phone travels from one geographic cell to the next, the base station will pass the signal for that cell to the next base station, allowing the call to continue uninterrupted.
A mobile base station typically consists of:
- an equipment shelter (housing the electronics required to send and receive mobile phone calls)
- a series of antennas (that talk to the mobile handsets)
- a radio communications transmission dish or a cable (linking the base station to the rest of the public telephone network).
Wherever possible, mobile base station antennas are integrated with local surroundings. These might be on freeway overpasses, street and electricity supply poles, rooftops, or existing radio masts. Base Stations have also been disguised as palm trees, hidden in advertising signs and placed on floodlight towers at sports fields.