The 5th Annual TowerXchange Meetup Europe opened yesterday in a virtual format featuring panels with some of the continent’s major players such as Vantage towers, Cellnex, Phoenix Tower International and others. The conference continues through Thursday, May 27.
While the global pandemic still makes its presence known globally, the show is focusing on how M&A activity has picked up pace in Europe and how 5G auctions have swept the continent with towercos expanding their services to support the mobile networks. The show features interactive roundtables, a meet the speaker green room, private one-to-one meetings and a virtual exhibition.
Tuesday’s fare opened with Vantage Towers CEO Vivek Badrinath, taking a look back at their first year and discussing what is next for the company. Laura Graves, Head of Global Content & Research, TowerXchange conducted the interview with Badrinath. Following that Graves talked to Tobias Martinez, CEO, Cellnex in a lively Q&A about one of Europe’s most acquisitive and innovative towercos. The Keynote presentation featured Phoenix Tower International CEO Dagan Kasavana on the company’s strategy and outlook.
Wednesday, the schedule includes:
“Bridging the digital divide and meeting coverage obligations”
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. CEST (4-5 a.m. EST)
This session will explore new business models, network architecture, site designs, contract structures and policy frameworks required to bring cost effective coverage to rural areas. Panelists are: Sonia Hernandez, CCO, Vantage Towers Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, CEO, Deutsche Funkturm Rhys Phillip, CEO, Cornerstone Marc Rocher, General Manager, France, Phoenix Tower International Alessandro Ravagnolo, Principal, Analysys Mason Gint Atkinson, VP, Network Strategy & Digital Architecture SES
“Roundtable Controlling land lease costs”
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. CEST (4-5 a.m. EST)
Covering the topic of land lease cost optimisation strategies in place at Europe’s towercos and how they are progressing. Panelists are: Mark Bartlett, Operations Director, Cellnex UK Christian Sommer, General Counsel, Vantage Towers Julian Shariff, Head of Property & Estates, Cornerstone Michele Vitale, General Manager, Italy, Phoenix Tower International
“Digital twin adoption and optimisation in the tower industry”
14:00 – 15:30 CEST (8-9:30 a.m. EST)
This session will explore examples of digital twins in use in the tower space, focusing how the data is delivering tangible results and on which use cases they are showing the most value, and will examine the solutions on offer and next steps in better integrating such technologies into existing workflows. Moderator: Damien Kelly, Head of Engineering and Innovation with panelists Delmec Daniel Andreu, Global Head of Technical Operations, Cellnex Martin Bouchard, COO, Deutsche Funkturm Shylesh Moras, SVP Operations, Development & IT, Phoenix Tower International Dieter Kleerbaum, CIO, Vantage Towers Yariv Geller, Co-Founder & CEO, vHive Spencer Crawford White, Partner, Visual Intelligence Alexander Hermann, Managing Principal Consultant, Huawei
“Futurist session”
14:00 – 16:00 CEST (8-10:00 a.m. EST)
The session features short presentations from some of the continent’s most innovative towercos on how they are exploring and monetising new service lines such as private networks, IoT and edge computing. The presentations will be followed by an open roundtable debate discussing the market opportunity and challenges as well as the development of new partnerships and commercial models. Moderator: Bruno de Donckers, Principal Consultant, Western Europe, Huawei with panelists Laurent Benet, Director of Strategy and Innovation, ATC France Jose Antonio Aranda, Director of Innovation and Product Strategy, Cellnex Markus Ala Hautala, COO, Digita Mikko Uusitalo, Managing Director, EDZCOM Luca Capozucca, Head of Innovation & Engineering and Massimo Scapini, Head of Technology, INWIT Jaime Abril, Head of Business & Product Development, Vantage Towers Tim Shikov, Strategy & Marketing Director, Russian Towers Christophe Fondin, VP, Fixed Data Product Management, SES
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