Connexa
Pioneering the independent towerco model in a new market
In acquiring the passive mobile telecom tower assets of two telecom operators in New Zealand, Connexa pioneered the independent towerco model in that country. With about two-thirds of New Zealand’s cell towers, Connexa is poised to benefit from its clients’ commitment to order additional tower sites over the next decade.
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A new model for New Zealand
The independent towerco model came only recently to Australia and New Zealand. In a two-year period starting in January 2021, mobile network operators in the region seized on strong investor interest, their own capital needs and favourable commercial factors to largely divest their cell towers.
Connexa was at the center of how that trend played out in New Zealand. The company was created in July 2022 when Ontario Teachers purchased a majority stake in the passive mobile telecom tower assets of New Zealand’s largest telecom company, Spark New Zealand. Within months, Connexa had acquired the tower assets of another local mobile network operator, giving it more than 2,400 towers or roughly two-thirds of the towers in New Zealand.
Demonstrating the benefits of co-location
Connexa has set out to demonstrate the benefits of having an independent towerco business in the country, including improved efficiencies, faster deployment, and fewer unnecessary tower builds. It built its team in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, when access to talent in locked-down New Zealand was especially challenging, in part by attracting local professionals from outside the telecom sector.
CEO Rob Berrill says Connexa is poised to grow because of its strong build-to-suit pipeline and the co-location opportunities in New Zealand. As part of its founding transactions, the two New Zealand mobile network operators that Connexa acquired towers from became its clients and committed to order a significant number of additional tower sites over the next decade. That gave the new company visibility into how many towers it can build.
Berrill says it will also benefit from advancing co-location in New Zealand. Having a single tower support multiple tenants is beneficial from an economic perspective and results in less visual interference. But it hasn’t been the norm in New Zealand. Connexa aims to change that, by encouraging co-location in the market. That includes training its workforce to think co-location first, and educating anchor tenants and additional tower tenants on how the model works.
We’re benefiting from our clients’ commitment to roughly 50% growth in site density over the next decade. By having that level of forward commitment from the mobile network operators, we’re able to unlock supply-chain efficiencies, adopt more modular and standardized deployment methods, and build sites in a more efficient way than what’s historically been the case.
