Covid-19 has drastically changed every sphere of our lives, including business, education, healthcare, communication, leisure and travel. As governments have implemented a wide range of policy responses to manage the impact of the virus, a common theme emerging across the world has been the importance of mobile connectivity.
The foundation of mobile connectivity is a network of communication masts and towers, most of which are provided by independent tower companies (“TowerCos”) which facilitate a model of shared infrastructure use that reduces the overall investment and operating costs for MNOs.
To shed light on the essential role of TowerCos and their efforts to ensure infrastructure resilience, as well as global policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, Access Partnership launched a White Paper titled “Lessons Learned from Covid-19: Perspectives from the Tower Industry” during a high-level webinar.
Speakers:
- Malcolm Johnson, Deputy Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo, Acting Executive Director of the Uganda Communications Commission
- Antonio García Zaballos, Lead Telecommunications Specialist and Broadband Platform Coordinator, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
- Ravi Suchak, Vice President, Public Affairs EMEA, American Tower Corporation
- Rodgrigo Jimenez, Vice President, Public Affairs, Latam, American Tower Corporation
- Mani Manimohan, Head of Digital Infrastructure Policy and Regulation, GSMA
- Gregory Francis, Managing Director, Access Partnership
- Christopher Casarrubias, Head of Emerging Markets, Access Partnership