Details

Last Funding Type

Private Equity（PE）

Industries

Communications Infrastructure,Telecommunications,Wired Telecommunications

Founded date

Jan 1, 2009

Number Of Employee

11 - 50

Operating Status

Active

Eaton Towers is a leading, independent, telecom tower company in Africa and will have the most diversified geographical tower portfolio in Africa.

Founded in 2008 by Sanjiv Ahuja (ex CEO Orange), Alan Harper (ex Vodafone UK MD) and Terry Rhodes (ex Celtel co-founder), Eaton Towers acquires, builds and manages shared telecom infrastructure, leasing it to mobile operators. The company is focused exclusively on Africa with more than 5000 towers in 7 countries.

Operational since 2010, Eaton Towers is majority owned by the sixth global emerging markets private equity fund ($3billion) of Capital Group Private Markets (www.thecapitalgroup.com/pe) and minority shareholders including a private equity fund advised by DPI (www.dpi-llp.com) and management.

African mobile network operators are facing increased demand for voice services driven by price competition and for data services as more customers demand smartphones and Internet access.

Network build and operating costs are significantly higher in Africa, yet revenues per customer are falling and regulators are seeking additional rural coverage and improvements in quality of service. Therefore mobile network operators are actively seeking to reduce capital and operating costs by sharing infrastructure.

Eaton Towers’ customers include major African mobile operators such as Airtel, MTN, Orange, Tigo, Vodacom and Vodafone.