edotco unveils Myanmar’s first bamboo telecom tower

Paving the way for sustainable infrastructure construction across the region

Yangon, 19 November 2019 – edotco Group Sdn Bhd (edotco), the leading regional end-to-end integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company, has installed the country’s first telecom tower constructed from bamboo. The structure is built in partnership with Yangon Technological University (YTU) as an extension of the group’s continued commitment to sustainable telecommunications infrastructure.

“Our recent deployment of a bamboo telecom tower in the Thanlyin Township positions edotco at the forefront of driving green innovations and engineering in Myanmar. Beyond harnessing cleaner energy sources for our sites, our ability to utilise renewable sources to replace traditional building materials is a step up in ensuring our modern-day solutions are increasingly environmentally friendly. A lot of research went into identifying the right local bamboo to be used for constructing these structures.  The usage of bamboo in constructing towers is set to reduce our dependence on steel by 80% and decrease 70% of carbon footprint per site,” said Vijendran Watson, Chief Regional Office, Bay of Bengal, edotco Group.

Often considered a versatile resource, bamboo is readily available in the country. It makes an ideal material for a load bearing telecom structure; studies indicate that untreated bamboo is capable of bearing the weight of concrete while possessing rigidity and tensile strength. It can also withstand gusts of up to 195km/h and is 70 lighter than steel structures, easing deployment and reducing the load to buildings.

The structure has the potential capacity to house up to two tenants at a time. With proper maintenance, bamboo also has an expected lifespan of approximately 10 years.

“We worked closely with the company to bring this concept to life in the local market. While bamboo is a unique material that lends itself to a variety of uses, we needed to determine the right type and species given the country’s unique climate and weather conditions. After conducting a thorough feasibility study, we were able to develop our own local application of environmentally sustainable structures,” said Professor Dr Khin Su Su Htwe, from the Department of Civil Engineering of YTU

edotco deployed the world’s first bamboo tower in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2017, and has since deployed a total of 16 bamboo structures. The company continues to deepen its commitment to reducing its impact on the environment through growing local partnerships aimed at bringing bamboo towers to the other markets in which they have a presence and where bamboo resources are available. 

About edotco Group           

Established in 2012, edotco Group is the first regional integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company in Asia, providing end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector from tower leasing, co-locations, build-to-suit, energy, transmission and operations and maintenance (O&M).

edotco Group operates and manages a regional portfolio of over 29,900 towers across core markets of Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Philippines and Laos with 19,700 towers directly operated by edotco and a further 10,200 towers managed through a range of services provided. edotco strives to deliver outstanding performance in telecommunications infrastructure services and solutions. Its state- of-the-art real-time monitoring service, echo, has driven significant improvements in field operations while maximizing operational efficiencies in terms of battery, energy and fuel consumption for telecommunications infrastructure.

edotco Group was recently awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2018 Asia Pacific Telecoms Tower Company of the Year Award for its demonstrated exemplary business growth and performance in Southeast Asia.