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Operators to make hefty savings from new agreements with China Tower joint venture.
China’s three main telecoms operators have brokered a deal that will see them pay lower rates for leasing tower space in the wake of the creation of their tower assets joint venture late last year.
China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom issued stock exchange filings detailing the new costs they will pay for access to towers that are now held by China Tower.
Essentially, the filings show that the operators will receive hefty discounts on leasing charges for sites shared by two or more telcos. There is a separate schedule of charges for access to existing towers that were wrapped into China Tower last year and for new towers, as well as different rates for towers that were already subject to sharing deals before the creation of China Tower.
The telcos did not put a price on the savings they expect to make, but analysts have had their calculators out.
According to Nomura’s Huang Leping, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday, the market’s biggest mobile player China Mobile will make savings of 2.4 billion yuan (€325 million) this year, while rivals China Unicom and China Telecom will save CNY1.9 billion and CNY1.8 billion respectively.
He put annual EBITDA gains for the three companies at 1% for China Mobile and 2% for China Unicom and China Telecom.
The telcos combined their towers assets to create China Tower in November. The JV took over assets worth CNY213.9 billion.
