JTOWER, which handles infrastructure sharing, held an information session on August 21st. He introduced the company's track record of installing equipment and talked about its future outlook. The company sells its technological capabilities, including equipment development, and has announced that it will acquire steel towers to install base stations from NTT Docomo, NTT East Japan, and West Japan in 2023. The company also attracted attention for starting tower sharing operations from 2024.
In March, it was selected as a partner of the Japan Mobile Communications Infrastructure Infrastructure Association (JMCIA), which maintains communications environments in subways and tunnels, and is introducing 5G to subways in the Tohoku and Tokyo metropolitan areas. On the 21st, they announced a shared relay device that will be installed within the subway.
As the cost of installing base stations increases, carriers are gradually starting to actively consider infrastructure sharing, and the company's next move is "frequency sharing," which involves sharing the bands it has acquired. At the briefing session on the 21st, Atsushi Tanaka, Representative Director, President and CEO, and Shinichi Shiozawa, Executive Officer and General Manager of Technology Headquarters, spoke about the company's aims and future outlook.
Indoor sharing is steadily expanding, and requests from carriers are also increasing.
Carriers are increasingly relying on infrastructure sharing to expand their coverage areas and improve communication quality while streamlining investment costs. The premise is that infrastructure sharing can be used in places where it is difficult to install equipment from multiple carriers, such as buildings and underground malls.
Mr. Tanaka of JTOWER, which is pioneering this business in Japan, says, ``When it comes to indoor countermeasures, carriers are thinking completely differently than they were 10 years ago.In most cases, they are thinking about infrastructure sharing rather than individual company measures.'' As a result, the company's business performance is steadily increasing.
As Mr. Tanaka describes it as a ``premise,'' the pace of indoor installations is expanding, with an increase of 164 cases in the one year period from June 2025 to June 2026. The number of properties installed has expanded to 874. ``The number of properties undergoing measures is expected to reach a new record high this fiscal year,'' he said, and sales are continuing to grow accordingly. In fiscal 2025, sales reached 17.6 billion yen, mainly due to growth in the tower sharing business acquired from Docomo and NTT East/West.
In March, we are also working on introducing 5G in subway stations as a partner of JMCIA. Unlike general sharing companies, JTOWER develops its own equipment and specializes in responding to the environment of Japanese carriers. We are also developing new equipment for subways, with the aim of introducing it in 2027. The Remote Unite for subways announced on the 21st is one example, and according to Shiozawa, ``station platforms and premises need to be dust-proof.''
In addition, ``Since the installation makes effective use of the limited underground space, capacity has been reduced by 34% and power consumption has been reduced by 45%.'' According to Tanaka, measures are currently being implemented and construction is underway in the Tohoku and Tokyo metropolitan areas, and in the future, "we will be implementing 5G measures in the Chubu area." The company also plans to apply for the second additional public call that began in August.
Infrastructure sharing used to be centered around indoors, but the situation is gradually changing after acquiring steel towers from Docomo and NTT East/West. Mr. Tanaka prefaces this by saying, ``This was unthinkable just a few years ago,'' but he also reveals that ``the need from carriers to take measures through sharing is increasing rapidly.''
