Nigerian headquartered telecoms infrastructure provider, IHS, has been selected to manage more than 2,000 mobile towers of France Telecom-Orange subsidiaries in the Ivory Coast and Cameroon.

IHS plans to operate the mobile towers of Côte d'Ivoire Telecom, Orange Côte d'Ivoire and Orange Cameroon for a term of 15 years.

According to the terms and conditions of the deal, IHS is expected to operate all the towers in the two West African nations, and help improve the mobile networks in those countries as well.

A statement from the company further states that in operating the towers, IHS will bring specialist knowledge and skills to help improve the customer experience and reduce Orange’s cost base.

The value of the deal between IHS and Orange, though, has not been revealed.

Marc Rennard, executive director in charge of Africa, Middle East and Asia for the Orange Group, said, “Sharing infrastructure is a compelling opportunity for Orange to offer a better service to its customers in Africa and the Middle East through improved network coverage and reliability.”

He added, “It also allows us to drive efficiencies, reduce costs and manage the particular conditions in emerging markets such as the cost of energy and accessibility of sites.”

Chief executive officer and founder of IHS, Issam Darwish, explained that placing tower infrastructure in the hands of mobile tower specialists could help benefit consumers, businesses as well as the operators.

“Our 12 years’ experience in the market, coupled with strong relationships with mobile network operators and equipment suppliers, allows us to bring improvements right across the value chain,” he said.

“Through innovation and our engineering experience we are also able to bring environmental benefits to Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon through a more efficient energy mix using solar power and the most up-to-date generator equipment,” he explained.