News provided by Cornerstone 23 April 2025 – Cornerstone, the UK’s leading mobile infrastructure services company, has partnered with Signify, the global leader in lighting, and Dense Air, a neutral host platform provider, to deliver next-generation connectivity through existing street lighting infrastructure. Oxford will be the first city in the UK to benefit from this ground-breaking deployment, ensuring seamless, high-capacity mobile coverage for businesses, residents, and visitors. 

This innovative approach integrates small cell technology into street lighting, transforming urban infrastructure into a scalable, multi-operator wireless network. By leveraging Signify’s BrightSites solution and Dense Air’s cellShare® platform, Cornerstone is enabling Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to provide improved mobile coverage, greater capacity, and enhanced digital services – all while reducing the need for additional infrastructure. 

Supporting Oxford’s future as a digital leader 

Oxford’s selection as the first deployment city aligns with the Government’s recent commitment to position the city as “Europe’s Silicon Valley” and to strengthen transport links between Oxford and Cambridge. This small cell rollout will further cement Oxford’s reputation as a hub for digital innovation, smart city applications, and world-class mobile connectivity. 

With the demand for fast, reliable mobile services continuing to grow, this solution will support local businesses, drive economic growth, and improve public services through enhanced digital connectivity. From supporting remote work to enabling IoT-powered smart city applications, this investment ensures that Oxford remains at the forefront of the UK’s digital transformation. 

A scalable model for future smart cities 

The Oxford deployment marks the beginning of a nationwide initiative. Cornerstone, alongside Signify and Dense Air, has committed to rolling out similar city-wide small cell deployments in two further UK cities in 2025, with additional locations to follow. 

Pat Coxen, CEO at Cornerstone, said: 
“At Cornerstone, we are committed to revolutionising the UK’s digital landscape by delivering cutting-edge mobile infrastructure solutions that empower our customers — Mobile Network Operators — to provide seamless, high-speed      connectivity. Our Oxford deployment is a prime example of how we are working with partners and local authorities to transform urban infrastructure, support economic growth, and create more connected communities. This initiative not only enhances mobile coverage but also reinforces Oxford’s position as a leader in digital innovation.” 

Khalid Aziz, SVP and Managing Director of BrightSites by Signify, added: 
“By integrating connectivity with street lighting, we are reshaping the way cities approach digital infrastructure. In partnership with Cornerstone and Dense Air, Signify’s BrightSites technology will provide scalable, sustainable connectivity solutions that support both 4G and 5G services, ensuring that Oxford and other UK cities remain ahead in the digital age.” 

Jim Estes, CEO at Dense Air, commented: 
“We are delighted to be supporting this partnership, enabling Cornerstone and Signify to optimise urban connectivity with our cellShare® platform. By leveraging small cells, we’re creating a future-proof model for cities across the UK, providing a sustainable and efficient way for MNOs to expand coverage and capacity.” 

Supporting Local Innovation and Growth 

Local leaders have welcomed the deployment, recognising its potential to enhance Oxford’s digital landscape and support economic and social development. 

Martin Reeves, Chief Executive of Oxfordshire County Council, said: 
“We’re delighted that our partners at Cornerstone and Signify have chosen Oxford as the first location to benefit from their 5G small cell rollout. This further establishes Oxfordshire as a centre for innovation and technological advancement. By working closely with partners, we have positioned ourselves as a forward-thinking region that readily adopts new technology to benefit our residents and businesses.” 

Craig Bower, Director of the Digital Infrastructure Programme at Oxfordshire County Council, added: 
“With the recent Government announcement on Oxford’s global tech ambitions, this deployment is a timely reminder of how critical world-class digital infrastructure is to our city’s future. These 5G small cells will enhance mobile connectivity and enable smart city applications, from intelligent transport to healthcare innovation. We’re thrilled that Oxfordshire has been selected as the first city in this commercial rollout.” 

As a leader in mobile infrastructure services, Cornerstone remains committed to working with MNOs, local authorities, and technology partners to accelerate the UK’s digital transformation. This deployment is just the beginning of a long-term strategy to bring best-in-class connectivity to urban centres across the country. 

To learn more about Dense Air’s Neutral Host Platform and how it can be used to deliver enhanced mobile services contact: Paul Trubridge or Darren Ballard

Open RAN isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the foundation for a more agile, cost-effective, and future-ready network. As demands for coverage and capacity grow, the industry needs open, interoperable solutions that break vendor lock-in and accelerate innovation. Here’s why Open RAN matters now more than ever—and what it means for the future of wireless.

News provided by 6WIND via EINPresswire.com

PARIS, FRANCE, April 3, 2025 6WIND, a leading provider of high-performance virtualized and secure networking software solutions, is proud to announce its collaboration with Dense Air, delivering virtual security and routing solutions to power and protect their next-generation Neutral Host offering.

Dense Air is a neutral host-as-a-service provider pioneering shared infrastructure and Neutral Host solutions to extend and enhance mobile coverage and capacity, especially in hard-to-serve areas. Their approach helps MNOs accelerate 5G deployments while improving the economics of connectivity.

Security is a non-negotiable foundation for our Neutral Host services. 6WIND’s vSecGW stands out as the best security gateway solution on the market.

Andy Hobbs, Chief Technology Officer at Dense Air.

As part of this collaboration, 6WIND provides its virtual Security Gateway (vSecGW) to secure Dense Air’s Neutral Host infrastructure. This solution plays a critical role in safeguarding communications between the Distributed Unit (DU) and Centralized Unit (CU) Radio Access Network (RAN) components, while also ensuring secure connectivity to the individual Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that Dense Air serves.

Dense Air’s Neutral Host solution enables high-quality mobile connectivity in venues and locations where providing consistent service has traditionally been challenging. These areas, often characterized by transitory traffic and variable demand, present difficult business cases for MNOs to deploy their own dedicated infrastructure. Dense Air solves this by offering a shared, cost-effective solution that allows multiple MNOs to deliver high-performance services without the overhead of individual deployments.

In addition to vSecGW, 6WIND also provides its virtual Customer Site Router (vCSR) solution to Dense Air, enabling scalable, secure, and flexible connectivity at the edge.

“Security is a non-negotiable foundation for our Neutral Host services,” said Andy Hobbs, Chief Technology Officer at Dense Air. “6WIND’s vSecGW stands out as the best security gateway solution on the market. Its performance, scalability, and reliability give us the confidence to deliver seamless, secure connectivity to our MNO partners in even the most challenging environments.”

We’re excited to support Dense Air in building a more connected future with secure, virtualized networking… Our solutions are designed to meet the high performance and security demands of modern telecom environments, and this deployment with Dense Air reflects our commitment to supporting innovative approaches like Neutral Host.

Julien Dahan, CEO at 6WIND.

This collaboration underscores 6WIND’s commitment to innovative, secure, and scalable networking solutions, empowering operators to expand coverage and improve service quality efficiently.

For more information about this collaboration contact:

Wynter Elwood: media@denseair.net

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Over two days during FYUZ 2024, our team engaged in dynamic discussions and panel sessions covering a range of topics, from Open RAN to TelcoAI. During the event, we sat down with Daniel Herb and Lee Dawson to explore how the industry is evolving toward a venue-pays model to enhance in-building connectivity. We also connected with Andy Hobbs and Neil Jackson to discuss the rapid acceleration of neutral host solutions, from initial ambition to refined execution.

Read more below from the TIP website: Posted Nov. 14th 2024: Telecom Infra Project wraps a successful FYUZ 2024

From November 11th to 13th, 2024, the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) held its flagship industry event, Fyuz™, at the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) in Ireland. This year’s theme, “Accelerate: Accelerate your deployments, business, and innovation,” set the stage for three days of in-depth discussions and insights into the future of open and disaggregated network technologies.

Fyuz™ 2024 stood out as the only event that comprehensively covers every aspect of open and disaggregated network solutions and Telco AI, attracting a diverse audience of C-Level executives, visionary thought leaders, innovators, and disruptors. The event focused on how the latest developments in network technology can be deployed, scaled, and leveraged to drive business growth and foster industry innovation.

Day 1 zeroed in on accelerating deployments, featuring case studies and updates from the Telecom Infra Project, highlighting practical strategies for implementing open and disaggregated solutions. Day 2 focused on accelerating business growth, with discussions on how organizations can leverage network advancements to unlock new revenue streams and transform their business models. The final day was all about accelerating innovation, diving into how emerging technologies like AI, Open RAN, and other disruptive tools are reshaping the telecom landscape.

Fyuz™ 2024 welcomed 1200 registrants from 51 countries, representing mobile operators and other service providers, vendors, systems integrators, regulators, investors, consultants, analysts, business and trade media, with over 60% of attendees holding senior positions (Director and above). Approximately 30% of all attendees were service providers.

Kristian Toivo, Executive Director of TIP, said, “Building on the positive feedback and recognition we received for Fyuz™ last year, our aim for 2024 was to elevate the event even further for our community, sponsors, and event attendees. We’re thrilled by the level of engagement from our delegates and the meaningful discussions that have taken place here in Dublin. A key focus this year has been on advancing testing and certification across all domains and Telco AI, driving the progress of open and disaggregated networks. Fyuz™ has become the platform where our community can engage in open conversations about these developments, and we’re grateful for their commitment to making this event the industry’s leading forum for innovation and collaboration.”

Small Cells World Summit in London is just a day away, and Dense Air is excited to dive into informative discussions and insightful sessions. Our CTO, Andy Hobbs, will speak about the growing ecosystem of services needed for customers and how flexible, small cell solutions meet this expanding expectation. After this speaking session, Andy will be joined on stage with Radisys and Druid Networks to discuss open and inclusive, multi-carrier small cell solutions for in-building enterprise and targeted outdoor use cases such as “connected corridors.” 

As enterprises embrace digital transformation, mobile business solutions become increasingly robust, powered by cloud-native technologies, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Businesses today embrace both in-building wireless and workplace wireless connectivity as the foundation for productivity, connecting assets, and workplace efficiency. Dense Air partners with customers across industries and helps them advance their digital transformation journeys by strengthening their wireless connectivity. In pioneering the development of small cell centric technologies to deploy targeted clusters of small cells, Dense Air is enabling operators to provide pervasive connectivity in areas that were previously economically unviable.  

Why Dense Air? 

Dense Air, a Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP)company, is bridging the connectivity gaps across industries including manufacturing, hospitality, parking garages, healthcare, college campuses, commercial real estate, and multi-dwelling complexes. Our Connectivity as a Service (CaaS) solution augments mobile network operators’ existing networks to deliver optimal experiences to their customers, providing seamless connectivity for productive workplace activities and client engagement. 

Small Cell and O-RAN Basics 

Small cells support the densification of 4G and the adoption of 5G by delivering the flexible, scalable network infrastructure that is needed to bring higher capacity and lower latency services to end users and end devices.  

As mobile network operators adopt higher frequency bands for enhanced user experiences, they are faced with new challenges of shorter range and poor penetration. However, it is not cost-effective for carriers to build out additional coverage within a structure or building. This is where Dense Air steps in. Our solution ensures comprehensive coverage by mitigating the shorter range and poor indoor penetration associated with higher frequencies.   

Leveraging small cells that simultaneously use both licensed and unlicensed spectrum, we deploy clusters of low-power radio access points that are roughly the size of a small pizza box. Targeted deployments of small cells augment the existing macro network to strengthen coverage and capacity, while improving indoor and outdoor connectivity experiences. As the industry transitions to 5G and returns to the office/campus, small cell deployment will expand to improve connectivity where today’s solutions cannot.          

5G innovation and small cell advancements have led to the growth of Open Radio Access Networks (O-RAN), an open architecture that Dense Air has adopted in partnership with Radisys. O-RAN drives interoperability across equipment OEMs and vendors. In other words, radio equipment from varying vendors works together in an environment to enable plug-and-play flexibility and virtualization.  

Enterprise Relevance (The Neutral Host Approach) 

As enterprises shift from a ‘voice and data’ approach to a broader ecosystem encompassing automation, robotics, inventory management, real-time monitoring, critical communications, and immersive experiences, the need for optimized and flexible connectivity becomes critical. These businesses must leverage multi-carriers and dynamic solutions for both wired and wireless networking.     

Many in the industry are familiar with the Dense Air carrier agnostic approach and the ability to augment existing networks by identifying coverage gaps. Dense Air is also providing small cell CaaS solutions to enable enterprises to provide ubiquitous coverage and meet digital transformation goals.   

Dense Air’s advantages include:          

• Ease in complementing existing networks 
• Carrier-agnostic and CBRS-ready “shared wireless” 
• In-building and near in-building connectivity optimization 
• Reducing overall costs  
• Simplified integration and automation 
• Greater flexibility through dynamic and distributed architecture 
• Data-driven and cloud-native 
• Versatile spectrum utilization 
• Equitable and sustainable solutions 
• Expertise in targeting outdoor connectivity gaps 
• Scalability for both carrier and the enterprise 

The future of work depends on equitable, inclusive, and seamless connectivity experiences to work anywhere, optimize operations, deliver engaging customer experiences, and innovate. Dense Air is proud to support the carrier community, while providing the carriers and their enterprise customers with CaaS solutions to advance next-generation connectivity use cases. To learn more about our solutions, please visit our site at denseair.net or connect with us on social channels. 

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Additional Resources and Related Links: 

Dense Air: Bridging infrastructure and the cloud; shaping the ecosystem of shared wireless services 

5G Networks: Revolutionizing the Future