The UK’s digital infrastructure deployment has rapidly advanced; the next challenge is infrastructure continuity

The Mobile Market Review published by DSIT on the 27 March 2026, began to recognise and reflect how the UK’s view on digital infrastructure needs to evolve and Cornerstone welcomed the opportunity to respond to this consultation.

Mobile connectivity is now core and critical national infrastructure. There is a growing expectation from households, businesses and public services for reliable connectivity everywhere. It determines whether communities can thrive and participate in modern life, and increasingly depends not just on coverage, but on capacity and real-world performance.

Over recent years, government, operators, landlords, local authorities and infrastructure providers like us, have collectively made significant progress in driving deployment, supporting investment, and accelerating connectivity across the country.

Encouragingly, the review recognises that infrastructure is required for communications capability, but also increasingly positions mobile and digital infrastructure as a foundational layer that underpins our economic growth, public services, transport systems, utilities, and enterprise transformation.

That broader framing is welcoming but the continued focus on planning reform, investment conditions and deployment efficiency remains critical as the country moves further into the next phase of 5G densification and digital transformation. 

The future of digital infrastructure is becoming more distributed, interconnected and embedded into the operational fabric of the built environment.  Macro mobile infrastructure remains fundamental to our national connectivity backbone and will continue to do so for decades to come.  But the market is evolving to meet expanding demand towards, rooftop infrastructure, small cells urban infill, street- level edge furniture, neutral host and digitally enabled public services.  These environments are increasingly critical to how modern towns, cities and enterprises operate. They also introduce a different set of operational and policy challenges.  Unlike traditional greenfield infrastructure, many of these deployments sit within highly dynamic commercial and redevelopment environments.  This is where one of our unresolved structural issue remains as an industry.

Continuity risk – Loss of possession of existing sites remains under addressed.  We have improved deployment rights materially through reforms to the Electronic Communications Code (ECC), but the ‘redevelopment displacement’ problem remains one of the most structurally damaging barriers to network resilience, investment certainty and long-term densification.

Digital infrastructure is still not prioritised within redevelopment and property frameworks, the consequence being, operational infrastructure can be displaced relatively easily during redevelopment cycles.  This is particularly the case in dense urban cities where connectivity demand is highest and creates several challenges for us as industry leaders of national infrastructure provision.

• Mobile infrastructure is frequently treated as temporary occupation rather than long-term strategic infrastructure
• A high-quality mobile user experience is often drastically under priced in redevelopment value.
• Operators and infrastructure providers absorb significant relocation cost and operational risk
• Communities and enterprises can and do experience disruption while replacement infrastructure is secured and deployed.

This challenge becomes more acute as networks densify.  Replacement urban sites are increasingly difficult to secure. Planning timelines remain inconsistent. Power and fibre dependencies create additional complexity and emerging connected infra solutions like small cells, edge-enabled environments and private wireless deployments often require highly specific deployment locations.

This should not become a false choice between redevelopment and connectivity.  Both matter.  Landlords, developers, operators, tower companies and local authorities all have legitimate and important roles to play in supporting economic growth and modernisation across the built environment.  If digital infrastructure is now genuinely recognised as nationally significant infrastructure, continuity and resilience increasingly need to become part of the redevelopment conversation itself.

The highlights and what feels encouraging

We welcome several key shifts in the MMR for the industry, arguably most importantly around policy framing.

Connectivity is increasingly framed as national infrastructure. The review increasingly recognises digital infrastructure as foundational to, economic productivity, transport, utilities, public services, industrial modernisation and future digital capability overall.

Continued support for planning reform in direction of travel around, Permitted Development Rights, deployment efficiency, and reducing rollout friction

Recognition that investment conditions matter, and openly acknowledging, changing market structures, high capital intensity, long-term investment requirements, and the importance of regulatory stability.

Both planning reform and investment are important as future infrastructure economics increasingly rely on densification, small cells, neutral host environments and distributed digital infrastructure models.

Stronger links between telecoms and wider infrastructure systems, with references to embedding digital infrastructure planning into transport, energy and wider infrastructure systems as strategically significant. 

What’s still missing

While the call for evidence reflects the progress and increased interest in this critical national infrastructure, it is important that government act on the evidence provided by industry stakeholders. There are some key areas where more policy evolution remains necessary to meet our national ambition for digital inclusion and economic growth.

Infrastructure continuity remains underpowered. The issue of maintaining network quality after redevelopment still feels treated as a deployment challenge rather than a resilience requirement . Redevelopment driven displacement needs policy thinking as mobile infrastructure will increasingly need more continuity planning, redevelopment coordination, replacement readiness, and infrastructure resilience during redevelopment cycles.

Greater recognition needed for towercos and digital infrastructure providers. Cross industry collaboration with government on the future infrastructure requirements that will become increasingly converged between compute and connectivity, fibre and wireless, edge and cloud, neutral host and private wireless models.  The role of shared infrastructure ecosystems still feels underdeveloped within the broader strategic narrative and increasingly important delivery vehicles for, local authority digital infrastructure, enterprise connectivity, transport systems, and future distributed compute environments.

Inconsistent local authority approaches remain a challenge.  Some local authorities increasingly recognise connectivity as foundational economic infrastructure.  Others still approach digital infrastructure primarily through aesthetic or land-use considerations.  That inconsistency creates unnecessary costs, delays and complexities in the system.  The UK’s future digital capability will increasingly depend on how effectively digital infrastructure is integrated into regeneration, transport, utilities and local growth strategies from the outset.

The next phase of policy evolution

Despite the positive direction of travel for mobile connectivity and digital infrastructure and the call for evidence.  The next phase needs to continue to push through on what’s missing and to broaden the conversation not only about where infrastructure gets deployed, and the speed of deployment possible within the current frameworks, but also how that infrastructure is protected, sustained and integrated into the long-term fabric of what underpins our future connected world.

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