Cellnex Delivers its First Consolidated 4G and 5G Mast Site for Vodafone and Three UK
Wireless infrastructure firm Cellnex has today announced that they’ve delivered their “very first” consolidated 4G and 5G mast site for the recently merged mobile operators of Vodafone and Three UK (VodafoneThree) – five months ahead of schedule, which was established in the Lancashire (England) town of Burnley. Many more are expected to follow.
So far, most of the immediate post-merger network performance improvements have stemmed from VodafoneThree’s efforts to combine spectrum, as well as joint network roaming via their new Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) – all of which are being gradually deployed.
However, over time the merged operators will also be looking to consolidate some of their mast sites and exit from those they no longer need, which should reduce unnecessary duplication and cut costs. Containing both software and hardware improvements, the first such site to be consolidated like this – located in Burnley – is now said to be delivering “fast and reliable 4G and 5G coverage” to both Vodafone and Three UK customers.
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The project involved a full baseband modernisation to boost capacity and performance, alongside the swapping of multiple antennas and radio units. It is the first of a number of sites, scheduled to be upgraded to directly support VodafoneThree’s recent merger commitment to “build the UK’s best network“.
Gianluca Landolina, CEO of Cellnex UK, said:
“We are honoured and committed to be supporting VodafoneThree in their journey to delivering the biggest privately funded telecom investment in the UK. The successful delivery of this first site in Burnley, ahead of schedule, is a powerful demonstration of this collaboration in action. Our role is to provide the stable, adaptable infrastructure, leveraging our neutral host solutions and national portfolio of sites. This builds the foundation for the UK’s digital future and gives VodafoneThree the confidence to execute ambitious, nation-building projects like this one.”
Andrea Donà, Chief Network Officer at VodafoneThree, said:
“Cellnex’s delivery of this first site ahead of schedule is fantastic news. VodafoneThree is investing in critical digital infrastructure to reach 99% population coverage with 5G Standalone by 2030 and 99.96% by 2034, laying the foundation for a more connected, innovative, and future-ready Britain. Having trusted partners such as Cellnex, who share our ambition, is essential to us achieving our mission to build the UK’s best network, and we look forward to continuing to work together.”
The combined business has previously stated that it aspires to reach more than 99.95% of the UK population with their 5G Standalone (5GSA) network by 2034 and push fixed wireless access to 82% of households by 2030, among other things.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Hope they don’t forget the Cellnex Three 4G mast in Mount Way, Woodside, Telford which it only got band 3 20MHz on it.
Is this an MBNL or CTIL grid site?
This article is factually incorrect/poorly worded – over 200 x sites have already been built to this configuration by VodaThree using Cornerstone as their Delivery Partner since July 2025.
it’s not worded incorrectly or factually incorrect. your reading comprehension is in question.
it states “their first” meaning the first one that particular company has delivered. The article never states not even once that it was THE first.
Have you noticed vodafone are doing so many pole swaps/pole replacements? Theyre even replacing poles that were only recently planted like 6-8 months ago. Whats going on? I also noticed vodafone are making planning applications for new poles where theyre already share poles with o2. I thought vodafone were going to keep sharing poles and also start sharing poles with Three. Something strange is going on. Have a look on mastdatabase.
Not at all here, I just had a look and it’s all Openreach basically with a few points for CityFibre and Gigaclear (and one for EE).
I really still don’t know what Vodafone is actually going to end up doing post merger, but we only have B1+7+8+20 sites here so far
If you read the planning application it will tell you the information you are curious about.
@anon Ive read the planning applications. There was one refused recently because there will be three poles in places where previously there were only two poles. The two poles were previously shared by four networks.
I have sent paper and email letters to VodafoneThree in regards to better mast locations, in my local area and I have yet to have a response.
More interestingly was a text message arrived on Wednesday 12 November, saying Two Networks are better than one, further a THREE customer I was now using the Vodafone network at no extra cost (phone switched off and on just in case), so I walked to a street with line of site of a Vodafone and O2 mast(, which is a valley) and got just as bad 4g as I have seen for the last year, so what ever the text message was about, that mast wasn’t included, despite it having 5g panels on it and the height.
My conclusion is perhaps it’s not ever mast that’s been upgraded, maybe it’s just one at a time.
As I’m writing this I have 5g, but I have no idea what mast is doing this, it’s possibly one in the adjacent town and my height is giving a near straight signal, despite it being over a mile away, it’s a legacy THREE site which was upgraded to 5g a few years ago.
I think it’s an automatic text message, but I have seen sites that aren’t even on MOCN here that are appearing up on nearby cells etc
Also if a site is on MOCN, it doesn’t always mean you’ll end up on it unless your signal is bad.
@N.Rees are you using cellmapper app to log/ locate masts? Did you write to the executive office?