Cornerstone: Building the Future of Digital Infrastructure
Telecommunications infrastructure within the UK continues to face unprecedented demands. With the convergence of 5G networks, the Internet of Things (IoT) and autonomous systems, a sophisticated level of connectivity is required that is far beyond anything previous generations of mobile technology have ever seen.
Such a shift is inevitably creating significant pressures on the physical infrastructure required to power our communications, including the equipment that forms the critical backbone of mobile networks.
Cornerstone, the UK's largest mobile infrastructure provider, maintains this foundational network of towers and equipment that supports mobile operators, including the global telco giants.
“There would be no mobile phone coverage unless we did what we did. There'd be nowhere to accommodate the cellular operators and provide the relevant cellular coverage that you experience as an end user,” explains Andy Train, Chief Network Officer at Cornerstone.
"We handle complex land acquisition, sophisticated design and engineering, as well as the construction and maintenance of cell sites."
Transforming the network
The complexity of managing telecommunications infrastructure increases with each technological advancement. From AI to the Internet of Things (IoT), the mobile networks of today must be adaptable to support a range of applications such as voice calls or autonomous vehicles.
Each application presents specific requirements for coverage, latency and reliability. Meeting these requirements demands new approaches to infrastructure deployment and management - something that Cornerstone is all-to-familiar with.
The company's recent transformation reflects these broader changes in the telecommunications industry. Where Cornerstone once focused on passive infrastructure - towers, concrete, compounds and leases - it now pursues a five-tier digital strategy to modernise its operations.
“This year, we'll undertake about 8,000 upgrade activities. That's delivery from a town and country planning perspective, land acquisition, designing, engineering and construction,” Andy says. “These activities require coordination across multiple teams and specialised suppliers, creating a complex operational environment.
“Our main focus is that technology is driving us into new areas. We're looking at expanding our estate into streetscape and urban densification.”
This shift comes as the industry adapts to new frequency bands, increased data demands, and requirements for reduced network latency. These advances will enable Cornerstone to adopt new approaches to infrastructure management and maintenance that were previously impractical.
Embracing digital transformation
The digitalisation of Cornerstone's infrastructure management marks a shift from traditional documentation methods.
The company’s records, including maintenance evidence books and design specifications, are now being transitioned from PDF and Excel formats to digital systems. This will ultimately enable new capabilities in asset management and maintenance.
“We have introduced digital capture and digital twins to digitalise all the assets we have within our estate,” Andy explains. “We have ingested all our leases into AI, so we can use AI more efficiently to tell us what we can and can't do on our leases. We can predict when leases are due to expire and where we may need to renew them.”
He adds: “The digital evolution and the introduction of AI and digital twins is enabling Cornerstone to enhance not just customer experience by the reduction of deployment, it's also enhancing the end user's experience by giving you 5G or more capacity faster.”
AI is also able to support planning assessments that help Cornerstone identify potential development areas that require additional infrastructure. This digital evolution has reduced the timeline for new site deployment, which historically took 24 months from land acquisition to construction completion.
“We’re looking to use AI across pretty much every aspect of what we do,” Andy notes. “We use it to tell us when there's potentially large developments taking place and may need additional infrastructure to be deployed.
The company’s field operations have also undergone significant changes through digital transformation. The traditional model of planned and preventative maintenance is evolving into proactive preventive maintenance through digital evolution. Such a shift represents a fundamental change in how infrastructure is monitored and maintained.
“We're trialling new innovation where our field engineers go to site and digitally capture sites through eyeglasses and through their phones, through drone capture Lidar and photogrammetry and also using drone technology to digitalise the evidence workbook,” Andy explains.
“Then we can use AI to overlay and tell us when sites may need further maintenance requirements.”
Security improvements accompany these operational changes. The company implemented a digital access control system that replaced traditional locks five years ago. This system creates a digital footprint of site access and ensures visitors have appropriate qualifications and authorisation.
“Digitisation has allowed us to have full visibility of who is visiting our sites,” Andy shares. “Now, through Locken, we can ensure that the individual attending site is correctly qualified and they are there to complete instructed works in a safe and planned manner”.
“It also allows us to look at things like our carbon footprint, how many people are accessing and egressing our estate on an annual basis.”
IoT: Supporting the connectivity revolution
Cornerstone's expansion strategies also reflect how connectivity requirements are changing. The emergence of 6G technology, increasing data demands and requirements for reduced latency are ultimately driving infrastructure development in urban and rural areas.
In response, the company now deploys infrastructure at street level to ensure consistent connectivity.
“Our craving as human beings for data and for it to be at the flick of a switch with no lag, provides huge opportunities,” Andy explains. “We're deploying infrastructure in extremely remote locations, but we will be deploying infrastructure at streetscape level, both urban and rural, to really focus on densification.”
Within this, IoT and connected cities are starting to present new opportunities. Andy shares: “An increasing use case for drones presents an opportunity, they are being used for everything from domestic deliveries to the emergency delivery of blood to GPs and hospitals. Our estate footprint presents a unique opportunity in this area.”
He adds: “Given the number of sites and the footprint we have in the country, it's simple for us to open our estate up and introduce charging capabilities for drones,” Andy says.
Cornerstone’s continued expansion also includes a future diversification into special event locations, including hosting facilities. These developments align with Cornerstone’s wider strategy to provide seamless connectivity experiences across a range of environments.
“Cornerstone has the largest footfall, it's logical that we diversify in other areas, not specifically focused on the cellular market space,” Andy explains. “Whether it's IoT, whether it's industry, whether it's agriculture, everything needs to be seamlessly connected.
“We're deploying infrastructure in extremely remote locations, but we will be deploying infrastructure at streetscape level, both urban and rural, to really focus on densification to ensure that the end user has seamless connectivity.”
These changes occur against a backdrop of environmental concerns and workforce challenges within the wider industry. The telecommunications sector in particular is looking to reduce its carbon footprint while expanding its network capabilities.
Cornerstone's sustainability initiatives include transitioning maintenance operations to electric vehicles and introducing renewable technologies at cell sites. Solar power and lithium-ion batteries are also enabling some locations to operate independently of the power grid.
“We're very mindful of the amount of people that access and egress our estate on an annual basis, and any individual accessing and egressing our estate has to use a car,” Andy says. “We are actively redesigning our cell sites and introducing renewable technologies so that we can potentially run off grid rather than have that dependency.”
Creating a workforce ecosystem
Like other leaders in the industry, Cornerstone faces workforce challenges common within the telecommunications sector. Currently, the average age of a field engineer is 54, with limited new talent entering the industry.
In response, Andy established the Cellular Network Field Engineer (CNFE) apprenticeship programme to get younger people into the industry.
“Frighteningly, no formal apprenticeship schemes have been put in place to safeguard our workforce from a field perspective,” Andy says. “The cellular industry has been running for nearly 40 years, going back pre-2G days, all the way to the 5G evolution. This is a nearly-40-year time period and you'd never think the fist mobile phones call was made in January 1985”
The programme took five years to establish through collaboration with government and industry partners. As of 2025, it has 15 apprentices enrolled - a feat that Andy is extremely proud of.
“We're really pleased that this year now we have roughly 15 apprentices enrolled,” he says. “That's 15 young, talented people coming into what is a really fast moving, vibrant industry and a well-paying industry. When you think about the logic, we have this really fast evolving industry that pays extremely well and we don't have enough engineers.”
CNFE is also designed to confront the evolving skill requirements of the technology industry, as 4G and 5G technologies require engineers to work with electrical and fibre systems alongside traditional steel work. As a result, and to keep diversifying the workforce, the programme removed minimum requirements from job specifications.
Andy explains: “We don't want minimum requirements. We want to understand what the person is all about. We understand that some people have had better educational starts in life than others. Those others who didn't have that good start in life shouldn't miss out on the opportunities.”
Young talent is the future of mobile
Within Cornerstone, a similar supplier strategy is maintained that considers multiple factors in partner selection and management.
“You've got to look at the size of the businesses, you've got to look at the skillset and competency. You've got to look at the complexity of the task in hand,” Andy says. “A smaller business that has a high skillset competency in that key area can probably solve a problem faster than some of the larger businesses. It's my job to make sure that strategically we get everybody positioned correctly so that we can meet the demands and provide the customer output that is being asked of us.”
The company's partnerships extend beyond education to include a network of suppliers that support its operations. This ecosystem approach ensures that specialised capabilities are available when needed while maintaining the scale necessary for national infrastructure operations.
“Without our partners, we can't do it,” Andy says. “We have 10 large acquisition design and construction partners that handle the predominance of our upgrade and deployment work. Then we have some smaller, more niche suppliers that provide additional support with things like small cell deployment, stated deployment and special events delivery.”
The rapid pace of technological change is starting to create opportunities for workforce development beyond traditional apprenticeships. Cornerstone continues to work with schools and colleges on T-level introduction and collaborates with industry partners to recruit postgraduates.
The company also explores international talent development, engaging with professionals from regions including the Philippines and across Africa.
As Cornerstone evolves, it is creating even more opportunities for new talent, particularly in areas where young people are extremely familiar with digital technology.
“Young talent is coming out of schools and colleges and they know more than we do,” Andy notes. “If you sit and talk to 18-19-20-year-olds, they've just got such a powerful mind, and if we can embrace that, magic starts to happen.”
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