With more than a billion subscribers, the Indian telecom industry is the second largest in the world contributing six percent to the GDP of the country. During the unprecedented Pandemic in last two Years, Telecom services were the main saty for survival of the global population. All facets ,Communications, Business, Entertainment , Telemedicine, Edtech, Service delivery thru Consumer Internet were delivered through Telecom Infrastructure. Digitalisation, where COVID acted as a catalyst to usher in the Data revolution. has fuelled industrial growth in recent years.
For sustained Economic growth , the need for a state of art Telecom ecosystem is imperative. As the demand for robust Telecom infrastructure capable of delivering cutting edge data services across different geographies gains momentum, it is now imperative to opt for an experienced technology driven telecom infrastructure service provider that delivers end-to-end service to the clients, with quick infrastructure deployment and cost effective on-time maintenance. This is where Ascend Teleco Infrastructure with its extensive domain knowledge and proven expertise ensuring best practices has made a mark by partnering all the Telecom amd Non Telecom Players to fulfil the Digital India- Connected India vision of our Hon Prime Minister .
With over 15 years of existence and profitable growth, in the telecom infrastructure service segment, Ascend has evolved as a one-stop shop for its customers , delivering a comprehensive range of services comprising Macro sites, Micro sites, Fiber to Home, smart telecom poles, and cutting edge technology deployments that include Edge Data Centres, Wifi Hotspots, In Building solutions, IOT and more. Owing to its proficiency and service quality, the firm has grown leaps and bounds with more than 7800 towers in different geographies. Presently, Head Quartered in Banaglore, operating at a pan India level, the company has operational offices in every state capital. Ascend is backed by GIP , The largest Global Infrastructure fund.
“At Ascend, we excel in delivering customer centric solutions which are future ready to take care of fast evolving Technology and new Data services. Our key differentiating factor is our 24/7 availability which leads to the quickest mitigation of any possible complexity. Our team specializes in providing the highest level of service in the most difficult areas both in terms of topography and grid availability like Jammu and Kashmir, & Northeast East India”, says Dr. Sushil Kumar Chaturvedi, CEO, Ascend Telecom Infrastructure.
Three Pillars Of Success
Since inception, Ascend has been vigilant about three critical segments of customer expectations, namely - Availability of service, Turnaround time for delivery, and cost effective operations. “We understand the expectations of our customers, and our team strives to devise unique methodologies that meet each criterion of our customers with complete dedication. This outlook has eventually led us to excel in these areas. With time these three areas have evolved as our USP, making us the most preferable business partners in the Telco ind ustry”, adds Dr. Chaturvedi.
Starting with 24X7 service availability, Ascend has uniquely developed its service assurance model, wherein it proactively ensures preventive maintenance and leverages technology to provide automation of operations. In terms of maintaining the infrastructure, this ensures effective management service with minimum downtime and high productivity with utmost customer satisfaction.
“With increased competitiveness, every customer demands quick installation of new towers that radiates on-air service to the end customers in minimum turnaround time”, states Dr. Chaturvedi. This is where Ascend is differentiating itself in the market. The team ensures that every project is completed in a minimum time frame using state of art process and best practices, maintaining the
quality standards of all installations. This helps in deploying Towers way ahead of the SLA’s assiting customers in expediting go to market strategy.
To attain operations excellence, the company has leveraged novel technologies in every aspect of its operations. Right from assessment to maintenance and billing, Ascend have implements cutting-edge technologies like - IoT for asset management, Drone-based tower inspection,Mobile applications for O&M and workforce management and more. In addition, it has also digitized its field operations, that not only helps with predictive maintenance but also with realtime GPS-based mapping for disaster management.
Very importantly , the energy cost running a telco tower has been a major concern for the Telco’s as it comprises of upto 60 percent of the overall Opex. However, Ascend has mitigated this problem by leveraging advanced Energy management techniques and technology, successfully optimizing the overall energy cost of running a tower. Presently, Ascend is the undisputed Lowest cost Operartor at a pan India level.
Green Company
ESG is a focus area at Ascend. Every activity at Ascend takes social and environmental risks into account. The company is dedicated to abiding by all legal and regulatory obligations, identifying any environmental consequences, and working to continuously lessen those impacts by reducing pollution and conserving natural resources. Ascend now complies with all relevant environmental laws and regulations as well as the requirements for fulfilling social obligations set forth in ISO 26000:2010, which enhances the organization's reputation in this area.
“Through improved risk management, we have dedicated ourselves to enhancing the overall environmental and social performance of our portfolio. We have adopted the standards that were derived from the environmental, social, and legal requirements for projects in India and cover the most important environmental and social impacts and issues that are listed in international performance standards like the IFC Performance Standards”, shares Dr. Chaturvedi.
Ascend is dedicated to comprehending and incorporating social responsibility into the business. At Ascend, the concept of social and environmental responsibility has been ingrained across every level of the organization. Ascend now assesses, promotes, supports, and teaches each and every one of its workers to promote different volunteer projects geared toward social responsibility.
“All employees who are under the organization's control are informed of the environmental policies in order to help them understand their own responsibilities in terms of the environment and society. By implementing the required controls and creating conducive working circumstances, we are continuously trying to reduce all types of pollution, including that affects the air, water, noise, and solid waste”, adds Dr. Chaturvedi.
Future Roadmap
Building upon the enriched experience, in the year 2010, Ascend took upon an expansion program, via inorganic acquisition of another big player in the Industry, India Telecom Infrastructure (ITIL), with over 3000 Tower sites operational across many states. Ascend Telecom successfully acquired ITIL and emerged as a cognizable player in the field with almost 4000 sites PAN India. The synergy of this mega acquisition made Ascend a dominant player with all Opco’s being on board.
Building ahead of their commitments and impressing the customers with Service Levels that exceeded the expectations, Ascend went on to build a significant revenue base, with over 5000 sites and over 10000 tenancies by the year 2016. Scouting the markets constantly, they have successfully acquired many accretive portfolios. Ascend stands today proudly with a 100 percent active portfolio of over 7800 sites and over 12500 tenancies ensuring profitable operations and sustained growth.
“Ascend commands the business today with many industry firsts in both Infra development, Energy supply solutions, remote management, Green initiatives and building an excellent team of professionals in the telecom infrastructure industry, marking their dominance on quality of build and business excellency thereby a preferred business partner of all Telco’s”, shares Dr. Chaturvedi.
In the days to come Ascend wants to continue developing its competency as a one-stop shop for its customers, while evolving as a future ready telecom Infrastructure company. Understanding the trends in the Technological developments, industry developments, and Customer expectations, Ascend has always been the first to adopt themselves to the challenges and ensure their growth, converting them into opportunities. “The bouquet of Services include Next generation products and services, wifi hotspots, IOT, LTE, FTTX, Inbuilding DAS, Power as a Service, EV charging stations, Smart poles, CCTV surveillance, Environment sensors and many more”, points Dr. Chaturvedi.
In terms of scale, in the next three years, Ascends wants to enlarge its assets from 7500 towers to 25000 towers throughout the country. The firm is also set to extend its reach in three South East Asian regions, while generating annual revenue of $3 billion.
At Ascend, what is more important than setting ambitious goals, is, achieving them. This starts from the top, with our ESG commitments embedded into my personal performance targets, as well as those of other key executives aligning all the employees towards the common goal. We confirm to the Global Reporting Standards on ESG embedded with United Nations Sustainable Development goals and have been certified for EMS (ISO 14001:2015).
In the last year, we have successfully executed against our ambitious sustainability agenda. Improved our green sites deployment from 65 percent to 78.9 percent in FY22. We continue to update our infrastructure countrywide as part of our environmental goals. Extended our commitment to ESG and streamlined our disclosures on our vendor base Issued our first sustainability report, the proceeds from which we are allocating across several environmental and social priorities. We also continued our efforts to improve access and affordability for the innovative community reach-out programs that are central to fulfilling our ESG purpose.
