Edotco, a subsidiary of Asian telecom giant Axiata, is planning to construct the company’s first bamboo-reinforced telecommunication tower in Malaysia by year-end. Edotco owns and operates more than 10,000 telecom towers throughout Bangladesh and manages a regional portfolio of over 29,300 towers across core markets of Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Group engineering and technology director, Ir Kumari Nalini, said Universiti Malaya conducted research on the use of bamboo and identified the Semantan variant as the most suitable type for the purpose.
“This is part of our sustainable telecommunication towers for a greener future initiative, as we are contributing to the national agenda to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint by 45 percent,” she said.
Kumari said the sustainability initiatives by edotco would contribute to an overall cost reduction of between 25 percent and 30 percent. “The savings will be given to the bamboo planters,” she said.
She added that edotco had used bamboo in the construction of its telco towers in Bangladesh and aimed to do the same in Pakistan and other regions. “After being treated, the bamboo structure can last for between five and 10 years, and we will be inspecting it on a monthly basis,” said Kumari.
Edotco Bangladesh has deployed 4,000 tower co-locations for mobile network operators since 2013 across the country. Back in 2017, edotco deployed a bamboo tower that reduces up to 70 percent of carbon emission per structure. Since then, the company reports it has deployed 15 of these bamboo towers.
Edotco Group also deployed carbon fiber towers and included renewable energy across the footprint whenever possible, achieving 54 percent carbon reduction per site target as of 2018.
July 31, 2019
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