KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 8): edotco Group Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Axiata Group Bhd, announced the deployment of a carbon fibre structure tower in Puchong, the first such tower of its kind in Asia.

The ground-based carbon fibre tower has been installed in Taman Tasik Prima, said edotco in a statement today.

The next carbon fibre structure to be installed will be a rooftop structure in Bangladesh. Edotco said it is investing into high quality infrastructure and encouraging tower sharing, where tenancy ratio has improved to 1.3 now.

"edotco is always experimenting with materials and innovative solutions to address the challenges of the telecommunications infrastructure industry. Given its lightweight nature, carbon fibre is ideal for rooftop deployment where load is a concern," said edotco group chief executive officer Suresh Sidhu.

"We are pioneering the use of carbon fibre structures to provide a solution that addresses requirements and concerns of the telecommunications eco-system from MNOs, governments, regulators, landlords, end-users and communities.

"This solution affirms our commitment to enable connectivity in our countries of operation by establishing high quality shareable telecommunications infrastructure for network operators," he added.

edotco is the first regional tower services provider in Asia with a portfolio of over 16,000 towers in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Myanmar.

edotco said carbon fibre structures harness the inherent properties of the material to offer benefits like 70% less weight than conventional steel structures, which reduces foundation requirements by half while providing high strength to weight ratio. A smaller footprint also requires fewer materials.

It also has high rigidity with tensile strength that is 10 times more than steel, which allows load bearing with the structure to better able to withstand harsher forces of nature especially wind conditions. The structure is also highly durable as carbon fibre is highly corrosive resistant, which contributes towards lower maintenance costs over the lifespan of the structure.

According to the statement, these features will lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) by 20%, compared to conventional telecoms towers, which may be brought closer to edotco's target of 40% in TCO reduction as it gets more familiar with such deployments, which it expects will lessen customisation requirements.

The carbon fibre tower is also a green solution, as it emits less carbon dioxide during its production process, added edotco.