Helios Towers Appoints Schumacher To Head HTSA

Helios Towers has appointed senior executive Jeffrey Schumacher as head of Helios Towers South Africa (HTSA), which was established in January with Vulatel, ITWeb reported. Schumacher has served as CEO of Helios Towers Ghana since September 2015 and of Helios Towers Congo Brazzaville since October 2016. He will oversee the company’s approach to the South African market, underpinned by Helios’s recent agreement with SA Towers to acquire a controlling interest in the local tower business and fund roll-out.

Helios chief commercial officer Alexander Leigh told ITWeb Africa that the company spent between eighteen and 24 months considering the South African market, including potential partners and assets. He said the alliance with SA Towers will enable it to scale local operations and use an immediate pipeline of 500 urban build-to-suit tower opportunities, relationships with MNOs and SA Towers’ town planning expertise/capabilities for managing building permit applications with municipalities.

HTSA will focus on expanding mobile and fixed-line open access infrastructure. Leigh said the intention is to deploy USD 100 million in the capital in the South African market.―Telecompaper