TechCentral has reported that American Tower Corporation (ATC) has begun building its own mobile base stations in areas where South Africa’s operators have poor network coverage.
Pieter Nel, CEO of ATC, South African unit told TechCentral that ATC had completed its first infrastructure build-out in Bisho, in the Eastern Cape, and has signed on three tenants that want to use the tower.
Nel said that ATC plans to build hundreds of new towers across the country and will focus specifically on areas with low coverage. He said: “We are proving the concept with our partners, and it will build momentum over the next two or three years. We are also interested in buying more towers from existing players and building our own.”
ATC acquired all of Cell C’s towers in November 2010 and now operates its 1,364 base stations worldwide. There will be as many as 1,800 towers built in the next three years that will cover cities as well as rural territories.
