1. Why Tecnorad Italia built
and sold towers in Italy
Leading turnkey service provider develops remote monitoring and control
solution for Europe
TowerXchange: Please introduce Tecnorad Italia
- where do you fit in the telecoms infrastructure
ecosystem? What services do you provide?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: Tecnorad
Italia has operated since the ‘80s in the radio
telecommunication industry in Italy. We were
founded by two shareholders who still own the
company – with no external investors we can be a
genuinely independent partner to our clients. Up
to 2015 the company developed two main Business
Units, acting as a tower company and as a turnkey
service provider.
As a tower company Tecnorad Italia built up and
managed up to 140 towers, mainly in the center
of Italy. The company developed the know-how to
control the end-to-end process: from RF engineering
to site acquisition, contract tendering, site design to
permit, civil works to I&C and to O&M.
We also resell and use an RF planning tool
called EDX SignalPro. Together with our deep
relationships, this gives us unique insights into the
expansion plans of Italy’s MNOs, which enabled
us to propose sites we knew they would find
interesting, and propose sites where we knew we
could secure a second tenant.
As a service provider the company started in the
broadcasting installation and maintenance field.
Since the mid ’90s Tecnorad Italia contributed to
the start up of the first privately-held MNO (Omintel
Pronto Italia, now Vodafone); then in the 2000s the
company worked on important wireless broadband
Read this article to learn:
< The structure of the Italian turnkey telecom service provider and ‘middle market’ towerco markets
< The effect of EMI limits on the Italian tower market
< The convergence of the broadcast and telecom tower markets
< What drove portfolio growth, and why Tecnorad Italia sold their towers to EI Towers
< The Teletower telemetry platform – built for European towercos, by a European towerco
TowerXchange wanted to deepen our understanding of the
independent developers who own, or owned, around 1,000
towers in Italy. As previously noted in this Journal, Europe
has relatively few ‘middle market towercos’, yet several
independent developers have built and sold towers in Italy. To
understand the drivers, we spoke to Tecnorad Italia, a turnkey
service provider who recently sold a 134 tower portfolio to EI
Towers for €17mn.
Keywords: Who’s Who, Towercos, Managed Services,
Monitoring & Management, O&M, Construction, Valuation,
Tenancy Ratios, Capacity Enhancements, Market Entry,
Network Rollout, Build-to-Suit, Exit Strategy, EMI, Leasing
& Permitting, KPIs, Decommissioning, RF Design, RMS,
Job Ticketing, Europe, Italy, Cellnex, Inwit, Vodafone,
Tecnorad Italia
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia
www.towerxchange.com | TowerXchange Issue 15 | XX| TowerXchange Issue 15 | www.towerxchange.comXX

2. projects, and was one of the companies involved in
Italian WiMAX trials. In the last ten years Tecnorad
Italia expanded its competencies into the remote
control and automation field, both for controlling
TLC infrastructure and for telemetry and field
automation for Acea (one of the biggest multi-utility
companies in Italy).
The know-how and the relationships developed as a
tower company have been a competitive advantage
for the service provider business and vice-versa.
TowerXchange: What is the structure of the
turnkey telecom service provider market in
Italy? Are there a few nationwide contractors or
lots of smaller, local firms?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: There are
different approaches from the MNOs. Telecom Italia
Mobile (TIM) and Vodafone control the RF design,
project management and network development
process in-house, thus assigning work packages
to professional services firms (for site design and
permit) and to “field companies” (for civil works
and I&C). H3G and Wind have agreed big national
contracts with Ericsson and Huawei respectively;
Ericsson and Huawei then assign work packages to
professional services firms and field companies.
Turnkey service providers in Italy are mainly
regional companies; MNOs understand the
importance of a profound local understanding and
the importance of local relationships with public
bodies for permitting, so they assign activities to the
service provider who can perform best in a given
area. Tecnorad Italia are particularly strong in
central Italy.
O&M contracts are sometimes awarded nationwide,
sometimes regional – but there is seldom a single
contract covering both I&C and O&M.
TowerXchange: How has the creation of
Cellnex and Inwit affected the Italian passive
infrastructure supply chain?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: As of today
we have not experienced much difference. Galata
(Cellnex’s Italian company) is still working with
former Wind service partners and Inwit with
former Telecom Italia service partners.
Something may change if Inwit changes ownership,
particularly if Cellnex will acquire it.
Over the next years they will doubtless select their
own partners.
TowerXchange: Has the entry of the
towercos accelerated tower strengthening or
decommissioning programmes?
www.towerxchange.com | TowerXchange Issue 15 | XX| TowerXchange Issue 15 | www.towerxchange.comXX

3. Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia:
Decommissioning programmes started four to
five years ago, driven by early site sharing deals
between TIM and Vodafone. We’ve been involved
in the decommissioning process – managing the
situation and proposing our higher capacity towers.
In terms of reinforcement, Tecnorad Italia made
some investments in strengthening our former
towers, but this is generally more frequently
undertaken when a towerco needs to increase the
number of tenants on a tower. If we analyse MNOs-
derived towercos – many of their sites, especially
the rooftops, have capacity only for one operator –
so they will need to add a second pole or reinforce
structures in order to propose those sites for
additional tenants, and increase their tenancy ratio.
TowerXchange: How much of a limitation on co-
location have the strict EMI limits in Italy proven
to be?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: Italy’s
EMI limits are not such a problem in rural areas
where there are seldom buildings nearby to a
tower. However, in cities and particularly for
rooftops it can be a problem. EMI limits have two
consequences: either you need to raise higher
poles on rooftops, which has an adverse aesthetic
and environmental impact; or you simply cannot
host an extra tenant as there is no more EMI space,
which drives demand for new purpose-built, higher
towers.
Again, it comes down to the need to know MNOs
plans. Towercos in Italy may be quite small but even
managing a few thousand sites it’s difficult to know
the unique characteristics of each site – we know
from experience that you can maximise tenancy
ratios if you know and manage each tower on a site
by site basis – if you know the story of each site, the
local issues. It’s not just about I&C and O&M but it’s
a commercial issue too – you need local knowledge
and local people that can act as your ears on the
territory, get information and act quickly – you have
to be quicker than your competitors.
TowerXchange: Do you see the telecom tower
and broadcast tower markets as quite distinct,
or can a company like Tecnorad Italia meet the
requirements of both segments?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: For a long
time telecom and broadcast towers have been two
different markets, with RAI WAY and EI TOWERS
focusing on the broadcast towers. RAI WAY and
EI TOWERS grew up with a single customer each
(RAI and Mediaset respectively). Now each has
to consider multiple customers. Meanwhile, the
independent telecom tower market started in Italy
just one to two years ago. Now the two markets
seem to be converging; broadcast towers are very
valuable hub sites for MNOs microwave networks
and broadcast tower companies understand
the economic value of MNOs lease contracts. So
broadcast towercos now diversifying to address the
telecom market.
Tecnorad Italia is one of the very few companies
in Italy addressing both markets: we started in the
broadcast market, we have a deep knowledge of
national FM radio broadcasters, we do consultancy
for them; and we have known the telecom tower
market for 20 years.
Our cross sector capability has been highlighted by
Italian towercos, who asked for our consultancy in
developing their telecom tower market proposition.
“ “EMI limits have two consequences: either you need to raise higher poles on
rooftops, which has an adverse aesthetic and environmental impact; or you
simply cannot host an extra tenant as there is no more EMI space, which
drives demand for new purpose-built, higher towers
www.towerxchange.com | TowerXchange Issue 15 | XX| TowerXchange Issue 15 | www.towerxchange.comXX

4. TowerXchange: We understand EI Towers
recently acquired Tecnorad Italia’s 134 tower
portfolio (63 owned) in a transaction that valued
the enterprise at €17mn (8.5x EBITDA). What can
you tell us about the origins and characteristics
of that portfolio and how it compares to other
small towerco portfolios in Italy?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: Tecnorad
Italia started to build up and manage towers in the
mid ‘90s, following the startup of Omnitel Pronto
Italia (now Vodafone).
Omnitel needed to rapidly rollout to achieve
government coverage requirements, so were
searching for sites to help them get to market
quickly. Sometimes we proposed existing towers
which we acquired, sometimes we proposed
broadcast towers, whilst in other instances we had
good relationships with local municipalities which
accelerated the site search and permitting process.
Tecnorad Italia deployed the capital to build towers,
and Omnitel were happy to have new towers to
lease quickly. Some of the very first Omnitel Sites in
central Italy were hosted on Tecnorad Italia towers.
The growth of our portfolio was achieved through
different key factors:
< A day-by-day and site-by-site commercial activity
with all MNOs.
< Tecnorad Italia technical capabilities, e.g. RF
planning helped us anticipate MNOs’ plans, thus
proposing our towers with dramatic advantages in
term of time and cost for MNOs.
< Our role as a service provider, giving us further
insights into MNO’s plans, letting us propose towers
at the right moment to the right people.
< A profound understanding of our macro-region
(central Italy), thus being able to build up towers
where no one else succeeded.
All these factors contribute to us building up an
extremely valuable portfolio of 134 towers, with
€3mn revenues, €2mn EBITDA, and a 2x tenancy
ratio.
This has been the final result of a 20-years high
quality team work giving us the possibility to offer
our services to the biggest tower companies in Italy.
We have been a tower company for 20 years, and
this is a strong differentiator from other service
providers!
TowerXchange: What motivated you to sell those
towers to EI Towers, and does Tecnorad Italia
have appetite to build and retain any more of
your own towers?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: Tecnorad
Italia shareholders understood that the lifecycle
of tower market in Italy was moving toward to
a concentration of towers into a few big tower
companies. In the meantime, the number of MNOs
was consolidating from four to three. In a few years
Tecnorad Italia would be too small to compete and
so this was simply a very good moment to monetise
the asset and reinvest to let Tecnorad Italia grow as
a service provider, both in the telecom market and
in new markets.
We do not preclude participating in any
opportunities in tower building – we have the
competence and financial capability to make new
investments – but we are now focusing on our
proposition us as a valuable partner for tower
companies and MNOs, so we’ll probably build
towers for them.
TowerXchange: Can you tell us any more about
the ‘middle market’ and ‘mom and pop’ towercos
in Italy – we’ve heard small independent
towercos could own as many as 1,000 Italian
towers?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: Cellnex
acquired TowerCo and EI Towers has acquired
“
“
All these factors contribute to
us building up an extremely
valuable portfolio of 134
towers, with €3mn revenues,
€2mn EBITDA, and a 2x
tenancy ratio
www.towerxchange.com | TowerXchange Issue 15 | XX| TowerXchange Issue 15 | www.towerxchange.comXX

5. many small and medium towercos in Italy in
the last year. There are still a few independent
developers left, some hosting multiple MNOs. Many
are regional broadcast tower operators. Several are
already acquisition targets. I suppose there could
be as many as 1,500 between them, if one includes
broadcast and telecom towers, but it’s quite a
fragmented market – most remaining players have
tower counts of tens and twenties, I don’t think
there are any independent developers left with
more than 50 towers.
TowerXchange: Please introduce us to your
Teletower remote monitoring solution – how was
the solution developed, what are the KPIs you
monitor, and who is using it?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: We started
developing Teletower in the second half of 2014 as a
project to revamp our old tower telemetry platform.
We wanted an innovative platform, giving us the
possibility to install an industrial PC in every tower,
so enabling telemetry, control and field automation
and, in the near future, IoT functionalities.
We designed and realised the solution in-house, so
it took us longer than purchasing an “on the shelf”
solution. But we wanted to customise it to meet the
real needs of a tower company and we wanted to
develop a deeper know-how in programming PLC,
SCADA and building up a complete solution.
The innovative approach has been appreciated by
the technical committee of “Forum Telecontrollo”
(the main Italian event in the remote control /
telemetry industry), letting us to present Teletower
in a plenary speech.
Teletower is designed to monitor and control
environmental, electrical, access and security
parameters. It’s mainly intended for tower
companies but its use can be extended to operators
hosted on the towers (with separate login
credentials and access permissions) and to O&M
companies.
TowerXchange: What is your impression of the
market for RMS among European towercos?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: The bigger
towercos are developing their own remote
monitoring and control solutions – for example
Cellnex has developed their own solution in Spain,
but, as far as we know, they do not have RMS on
their Italian tower portfolio yet. Larger towercos
need to integrate the towers they acquire into their
NOC, but acquired towers often don’t have any
remote control. Acquisitions from small towercos
are unlikely to have RMS, even when acquiring
towers from MNOs their remote monitoring tends
to focus on control of the active network, not the
passive infrastructure. We believe there is room in
Europe to develop and promote such services.
We looked at the many RMS vendors in the
TowerXchange Journal, and noticed that most focus
on Africa and Asia, few had a significant presence
in Europe. Even small and medium towercos don’t
have the investment capability to build their own
remote monitoring and control systems – we feel
Tecnorad Italia could be a service aggregator for
small and medium towercos. When EI Towers
saw our Document Management System (called
Towerfinder) and our Remote Monitoring System
(Teletower), it was the first time, since they started
acquiring small-medium tower owners about ten
years ago, they had seen such a document and field
control solution; Teletower helped us maximise the
value of the asset when we sold them our towers.
RMS is a key enabler of value when small and
medium towercos divest their towers – it means
the buyer knows the sites are better managed,
better controlled. We want to promote Teletower to
European towercos, although we understand from
TowerXchange research that it is a fragmented
market.
TowerXchange: How proven is the Teletower
RMS?
Mauro Cerboni, CTO, Tecnorad Italia: EI Towers
have Teletower on a significant percentage of the
most critical towers they acquired from us, and we
are proposing the solution to all the towercos in
Italy. We have a business plan, developed with a
LUISS Business School Executive MBA program, to
expand into international markets. Teletower can
enabled a single hub control room to control assets
across several different countries, supported by
local partnerships for maintenance and commercial
activities. We program the industrial PCs ourselves.
The presence of an industrial PC (and not just an
RTU or PLC) gives us the capability to expand the
solution in unimaginable ways, easily carrying
tower companies to the IoT era
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