Birmingham City Council and Dudley Council sign landmark lease agreements to accelerate the rollout of 5G in the West Midlands

Cornerstone is pleased to have completed Code agreements with Birmingham City Council and Dudley Council to speed up the rollout of 5G.

Birmingham City Council and Dudley Council have signed landmark lease agreements with Cornerstone and MBNL to accelerate the rollout of 5G network infrastructure, under the guidance of West Midlands 5G (WM5G) Limited.

The collaboration between WM5G, MBNL and Cornerstone, as well as some of the region’s local authorities, including Birmingham City Council and Dudley Council, has paid dividends with up to 50 lease agreements being secured for 5G mobile sites in key locations across the West Midlands, paving the way for more.

The lease agreements afford security for mobile network operators and provide a framework for the ongoing development of mobile network infrastructure. Reducing the barriers and time to deploy the required infrastructure, will cut the deployment time by six months or more – and will enable the benefits sooner to citizens, businesses, and the public sector across the West Midlands.

The biggest obstacle facing the deployment of 5G networks across the UK has been the dramatic changes to legal and planning regulations, governing the deployment of mobile network infrastructure. Market challenges have arisen from revisions to the Electronic Communications Code (ECC) 2017, causing delays to the deployment of mobile networks and hindering the rollout of 5G.

Although there have been challenges, the overall approach has been successful to-date; and having worked with all seven local authorities in the West Midlands Combined Authority area, the region was recently ranked highest in a 5G coverage survey, undertaken by the independent telecoms advisory company, Umlaut.