Tower One Wireless reaches 540 towers in Latin America

Latin America-focused telecoms infrastructure firm Tower One Wireless said it grew the regional portfolio to 540 sites following the deployment of 23 towers in March.

All towers built last month went to Colombia, where 5G rollout is starting to take flight following a December auction. In comparison, Tower One delivered 11 sites for Colombian carriers in March 2023.

Tower One ended the month with 588 tenants, or leasing occupants, for its LatAm towers, according to the company’s monthly construction report. Each site may have more than one tenant.

The company focuses solely on a build-to-suit (BTS) strategy for mobile operators, which means having a long-term site lease secured before construction begins. This model is said to generate more attractive contractual returns for tower firms.

The new Colombian sites are a mix of urban and rural deployments of different sizes and purposes, including macrotowers and distributed city poles. They all have a 10-year contract leasing period.

The towers were deployed in localities in the departments of Valle, Antioquia, Chocó, Tolima, Cauca, Bolivar and Huila.

As of end-March, Tower One had built 689 towers in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Argentina, Of the total, 540 remain in operation in the first three countries.

Telefónica, Tigo, WOM and Claro are the group's main customers. 

WOM Colombia filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, following in the footsteps of WOM Chile. The process encompasses debt renegotiations and has the potential to affect suppliers and contractors such as Tower One and other tower firms.

In December's 5G auction, WOM Colombia acquired 80MHz of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band.

As part of its coverage obligations, WOM is expected to connect 14 highways and 318 educational institutions in 77 municipalities.