Tenancy ratios – the average number of tenants or operators sharing tower infrastructure -are a key metric for valuing tower companies. Meeting and exceeding tenancy ratio targets is a clear way to indicate growth and expansion in specific markets.
For the capital heavy tower market, improving tenancy ratios in telecom is a critical component of new revenue creation, providing a relatively low cost means to increased profit. Whether a tower company is planning an IPO, an expansion, or just hitting quarterly targets; tenancy ratios provide a measurable benchmark of success.
Improving tenancy ratios and benchmarks require a clear strategy and consistent data. In order to meet new targets, tower companies must firstly establish trusted insights into the active and passive inventory on each tower, what their current ratios are, and exactly what currently exists on each asset. Companies must also understand exactly how much free capacity is available on each tower, and be able to accurately identify any passive or unutilized infrastructure in each particular market. In addition, companies need to know exactly what the current utilization looks like: the customer mix on tenancies is also an important factor in valuation and risk reduction strategies.
Increasing Tenancy Ratio with Digital Twins
Existing data available in asset management systems can’t always be relied upon. The data is not always current or accurate, and it isn’t always easy to access for stakeholders focused on revenue growth. Even though accurate data is important, gathering data manually by putting people in the field to inspect towers is labor-intensive, time consuming, costly, and dangerous. Because of these inherent costs, field inspections are performed infrequently: and the data shared doesn’t always answer the specific needs of future users. With automated drone inspection software, there is a better way to gather and to present asset data.
Creating digital twins of tower assets – interactive 3D models of equipment – automates the challenge of can solve the problem of identifying passive or unutilized spaces. Digital twins are created by capturing aerial imagery with autonomous drones and processing the data into high resolution, 3D images. Users can interact with asset 3D models, travelling around the asset and zooming in on areas of interest. Digital twins provide a safe and cost-effective means of keeping accurate asset data for many purposes: for mergers and acquisitions, for inspections, and for maintenance.
Digital Twins can clarify the roadmap to improving tenancy ratios: and vHive is the leading autonomous drone software platform for developing them. vHive’s intelligent solution can automatically generate the flight plan for any type of telecom tower, and execute that flight plan using inexpensive, off-the-shelf drones. Data is uploaded to the vHive cloud to be processed into 3D models, while powerful, AI-powered analytics can process large quantities of data and identify the critical points: including unutilized mounts.
With vHive’s inventory change detection, users can easily identify changes that have been made to a site’s inventory. The vHive platform compares between two surveys and displays in 3D a summary of any equipment removed, added or changed over time, including their location on the site. This functionality also generates an equipment change list as part of the site report, accelerating time to insights.
The vHive solution allows users to move between adjacent high resolution images in 3D space, visualizing assets from a variety of angles. vHive’s Panoramic Virtual Tour provides another layer of insight for tower companies, enabling identification and analysis of Line of Sight considerations. This data can be shared with tenants, prospects, and other stakeholders to inform decisions and allow them to move forward with confidence. In addition, this shared data is foundational to building confidence in tenant billing processes.
Tower companies must use every tool available to stay competitive: drones, 3D modeling, AI, and more. Creating digital twins of tower assets clarifies data, and can help stakeholders identify opportunities and build clear strategies to improve tenancy ratios and profitability.