With a mast about a bright future – Newspaper Kommersant No. 28 (7473) of 02/15/2023
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In the spring, another company will start operating on the operator infrastructure market – New City Services LLC (NGS LLC). It will be engaged in the construction of antenna-mast structures (AMS) to accommodate base stations in Moscow. The founders of the structure are hidden, but it is headed by the former head of ESN Energo. The appearance of a new participant may reduce prices for placing base stations in the capital, however, market participants warn that the segment is now going through a difficult time: due to a shortage of foreign equipment, operators are almost not developing their networks.
Sources of Kommersant in mobile operators said that a new infrastructure company has appeared on the Moscow market, which will build AMS to accommodate base stations, LLC New City Services. This information was confirmed by the interlocutor of “Kommersant” in the mayor’s office. According to him, since the fall of 2022, several telecom operators have been negotiating with NGS to lease its AMS: “The project is scheduled to launch in the spring, while the company plans to work only in the capital.” The sources did not specify how many facilities the NHS plans to build.
According to SPARK-Interfax, NGS LLC was registered in March 2022 with an authorized capital of 100 thousand rubles. The enterprise is 100% owned by the closed-end investment fund “Polinvest”. The company did not answer “Kommersant”. Sylviyan Seu, who in 2004-2005 headed ESN Energo (part of Grigory Berezkin’s ESN group), is listed as the NGS General Director. Mr. Seu did not answer Kommersant’s questions.
At the end of 2022, a new participant has already entered the tower infrastructure market: the ex-general director of the Russian Towers, Alexander Chub, founded the Russian Infrastructure Company (RIK, see Kommersant dated December 15, 2022). Mr. Chub did not specify the number of facilities owned by the REC.
Service-Telecom also operates in the segment (19.1 thousand AMS; 75% – from Galina Gurinova, wife of Vadim Gurinov, founder of Cordiant, 20% – from Dmitry Sokov, ex-head of the board of directors of Cordiant, 5 % – from Olga Berdina, wife of the company’s CEO Nikolai Berdin), who in 2021 bought out the portfolio of VimpelCom, and New Towers (30 thousand AMS; 65% – from KCG, 25% – from MegaFon, the remaining share at the structures of the founder of the “Vertical” Georgy Chumburidze). The latter united the assets of MegaFon, Vertical and Russian Towers. MTS (23,000 AMS) and Tele2 (about 13,000 AMS) are also planning to sell their tower assets.
In VimpelCom, Kommersant confirmed that they are negotiating with NGS, without disclosing details. MegaFon reported that they are cooperating with leading federal companies in the tower infrastructure market, but NGS is “not included in the list of partners.” Tele2 claims that they do not cooperate with NGS, emphasizing that their own Pilar LLC provides services for accommodating other players at infrastructure facilities. MTS declined to comment.
In 2022, operators reduced the volume of installation of new base stations by more than 60%. First of all, the shortage of foreign equipment affected (see Kommersant of February 6).
Due to sanctions, the tower infrastructure market “is in one of the most difficult periods,” says Evgeny Chermashentsev, general director of the New Towers Group. However, he emphasizes, the segment “continues to be competitive, which allows new and old players to be on an equal footing.” The emergence of a new independent company “will add momentum, contribute to the stability and quality of services, as well as the scale and growth rate of the market,” Alexander Chub believes.
NGS will have to enlist the loyalty of the administration in order to establish infrastructure on a par with competitors, says Telecom Daily CEO Denis Kuskov: “At the same time, the new operator will have to offer operators better prices.” Increased competition, in his opinion, will generally reduce the cost of placing base stations in the capital.
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