![\"Jim](\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Jim-Taiclet.jpg\")
<\/a>Jim Taiclet<\/p><\/div>\n
The group reported an increase of eight towers during the quarter in South Africa, to\u00a01,629.<\/p>\n
At the end of the second quarter of 2013, American Tower managed 56,193 communications towers in all its markets, of which 55,720 were for Wireless network and 473 for Broadcasting.<\/p>\n
Geographically, the company operates 22,720 wireless towers and 274 broadcast towers in the US. along with 33,473 wireless towers and 199 broadcast towers outside the US.<\/p>\n
The group lead said that\u00a0depending on whether it\u2019s a rooftop, or whether it\u2019s a ground-based tower, it costs in the range of around\u00a0$150,000 to build in Africa, with average rental rates in SA is in the $2,500 range.<\/p>\n
“As overall internet usage continues to expand in South Africa, we anticipate that the vast majority of this growth will continue to be captured in the mobile network, given South Africa\u2019s very low wireline penetration of 9%,” Taiclet\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
“Already, the strong subscriber ramp up in data is fueling significant need by the carriers to invest in 3G capacity builds. MTN and Vodacom, for example, have recently reported plans to increase their 3G deployment activity. This is resulting in leasing activity across our South African sites well in excess of our original expectation,” he said.<\/p>\n
The CEO believes ATC still has substantial upside to grow in South Africa. “Today, smartphone penetration is only 20%, so there\u2019s significant upside to data adoption as handsets become cheaper and more accessible for those consumers.”<\/p>\n
“Further down the road, we view LTE deployments as a longer term growth driver in the South Africa market, and anticipate that carriers will largely use the spectrum they have been allocated to provide more advanced services such as mobile video,”\u00a0Taiclet said.<\/p>\n