The deals aims to help China Tower handle demand for transmission of monitoring data and related data analysis services for mid and high-point IoT devices
Chinese tower operator China Tower has renewed multi-year framework deals with compatriot operators China Telecom and China Unicom with the aim of paving the way for an expected surge in demand for IoT monitoring data and data analysis services related to its “Smart Tower” business segment.
In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, China Tower said it recently signed different agreements with China Telecom and China Unicom to lease transmission and cloud resources, including telecoms electricity cables, telecoms equipment, cloud private line and cloud equipment.
The company noted that the new framework deals aims to help China Tower handle demand for “transmission of monitoring data and related data analysis services for mid and high-point IoT devices – including video cameras, weather, radar and other sensors – in its “Two Wings” business.”
China Tower’s smart tower business segment is one of the “Two Wings” businesses, and uses mid and high point “digital towers” equipped with IoT devices to collect data for government agencies to monitor critical areas including water resources, transportation, environmental protection and emergency response. The other “wing” is its energy business, which includes battery exchanges and power back-up services.
China Tower noted that the two framework deals, which are effective immediately and run until the end of 2026, include annual transaction caps. For the China Telecom framework deal, yearly transactions are capped at CNY150 million ($20.9 million), CNY190 million and CNY230 million for 2024, 2025 and 2026, respectively. For the deal with China Unicom, the caps are set at CNY120 million, CNY150 million and CNY180 million for the same three years.
In its H1 2024 financial results, which were released last week, China Tower said its Smart Tower revenue grew 17.6% year-on-year to CNY3.9 million. Of that, 63% was generated from its tower monitoring business.
China Tower ended the first half of the 2024 with a total of 2.07 million towers under management, after a new addition of 9,000 sites during the period.
The company said that total tower tenants rose by 84,000 to 3.73 million, pushing the average number per tower from 1.77 as of the end of H1 2023 to 1.80 at end-H1 2024.
China Tower’s net profit in H1 climbed 10.1% year-on-year to CNY5.33 billion, while operating revenue grew 3.8% to CNY48.24 billion.
China Tower was formed in 2014, when the country’s mobile carrier China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom transferred their telecom towers to the new company. The three telcos decided to create the new entity in a move to reduce redundant construction of telecommunications infrastructure across the country. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom currently own a 38%, 28.1% and 27.9% stake respectively. State-owned asset manager China Reform Holding owns the remaining 6%.
