Tawal, the Saudi ICT infrastructure company, plans to build about 200 new towers in the Kingdom every year to keep up with the sector’s expansion needs, according to CEO Mohammed Alhakbani.
He said that the company is working on major projects in the Kingdom, including NEOM, Al-Qiddiya, Red Sea, Amaala, and AlUla. Tawal has, for instance, begun the construction of 60 new solar-powered sites at NEOM.
Tawal owns about 15,000 of Saudi’s 35,000 telecoms towers
For 850 sites, Tawal is adopting hybrid energy solutions that include batteries and generators to reach over 1,000 locations by 2021. Over 300 diesel generators have also been converted and connected to the electricity grid, with another 100 set to be added by the end of 2021. Furthermore, renewable energy is becoming more prevalent across the network, according to Alhakbani.
Tawal is also working on promoting the sharing of communication towers to reduce duplication.