edotco Group Sdn Bhd nabs Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards for Analytics - Telecommunications

Through its pioneering analytics tool, edotco is at the forefront of solving internet connectivity woes.

Malaysia’s mobile network operators (MNOs) are working round-the-clock to boost internet connectivity across the country. However, a key hurdle that MNOs face is the difficulty in building additional telecommunications infrastructure. Building a single cellular tower can take anywhere from 8-12 months, bogged down by a long site selection and acquisition process.

This is why edotco Group has turned to data analytics to shorten the build process and help MNOs meet their planning objectives.

Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, edotco Group is the first and leading regional integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company in Asia. It specialises in end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector including co-locations, build-to-suit, energy, transmission and operations and maintenance.

edotco Group Sdn Bhd uses its proprietary Network and Planning Analytics (NaPA) tool to provide insights of potential locations for new tower sites and reduce build time. Because of this, the group scored the Analytics - Telecommunications trophy at the recently concluded Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review.

Now in its second year, the awards event lauds enterprises that take the leap and take the lead in engineering trailblazing projects, virtual services, reconstructed strategies, and technological innovations.

NaPA uses powerful geocoding and analytics to generate coordinates with granularity and accuracy. At present, 40% of Malaysia’s 25,000 sites overlap, and many sites are located within less than a 0.5km of each other. This causes wastage of capital on an industrial scale, and also increases operational expenditure.

To prevent such overlaps, NaPA overlays three datasets to select the most appropriate sites for MNos. First, the demand dataset identifies factors such as population size, settlements and points of interest. Second, the supply dataset provides each MNOs’ subscriber data and coverage signal strength. Lastly, NaPA’s matching module identifies whether there are nearby edotco sites which can be used for site-sharing.

NaPA uses geo-spatial analytics to identify potential rural areas lacking connectivity. These capabilities then enable MNOs to identify locations which offer a high return on investment. It identifies locations with low demand to assess which locations will give an MNO a good return on investment if it were to build sites. NaPA also pinpoints locations that have poor supply in order to assess whether an MNO has good coverage in areas with high demand. It also provides competitor analysis by identifying signal strength, and predicts site build for capacity planning.

At present, NaPA has been able to identify 70 potential coordinates for future infrastructure deployment that meets National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) objectives in Johor, Terengganu and Sabah. NaPA has also assisted MNOs’ capacity planning in other edotco footprints: it predicted sites in Myanmar for potential congestion in the next six months, and identified over 50% of site sharing opportunities from rollout plans of all MNOs in Pakistan.

NaPA is also a critical tool which boosts edotco’s readiness for 5G network planning. The impending 5G network roll-out will need additional capacity by way of 15,000 new strategically located sites.

The Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review, was held via video conferencing throughout the month of September.

This year’s nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Justin Ong, Partner and FSI Financial and Regulatory Risk Leader at Deloitte Asia Pacific; Alvin SH Gan, Executive Director, Partner, Head of IT enabled Transformation (ITeT) at KPMG Malaysia; Hari Iyer, Executive Director, Advisory at BDO Kuala Lumpur; Michael Lim Jr, Managing Director at Crowe Growth Consulting Sdn Bhd; Jade Leong, Partner, Advisory at Ernst & Young Advisory Services Sdn Bhd.

If you would like to join the 2021 awards and be acclaimed for your company’s exceptional technological innovations, please email Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected]