Colin Cunningham, managing director of Cellnex in Ireland. Image: Cellnex
In 2020, Cellnex plans to build 200 new telecoms infrastructure towers across Ireland. The overall goal is to invest €60m into building 600 new sites in Ireland by 2026.
In September 2019, Irish telecoms infrastructure firm Cignal was acquired by Cellnex Telecom in a deal worth €210m.
Cignal was founded in 2015, following the acquisition of 300 tower locations from Coillte. In September, the company was responsible for 546 telecoms tower sites across Ireland.
After the company was acquired by Cellnex, it said that the investment would be used to help reduce coverage black spots and improve broadband access around Ireland, with Cignal’s existing management team and staff maintaining their roles in the business.
Today (2 December), the company announced plans to build an additional 200 towers across Ireland in 2020. It will also rebrand as Cellnex, taking on the name of the company that acquired it earlier this year.
Growth plans
Cellnex plans to invest €60m to build up to 600 new sites in Ireland by 2026, doubling its existing presence. By the end of this year, the portfolio will have increased to around 600 sites.
Across Europe, Cellnex Telecom has a portfolio of more than 46,000 telecom sites in countries such as Ireland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and the UK. By 2027, the company plans to raise this figure to 53,000.
In a statement, Cellnex said: “Despite the brand change, the company’s mission and long-term approach remains unchanged as it is fully aligned with Cellnex’s mission and vision: to roll out new telecoms infrastructure in communities that are currently poorly served, so that operators can provide enhanced mobile and broadband services.”
Cellnex also said it is “exploring offering additional services to customers in Ireland”, including services such as fibre infrastructure, indoor coverage improvement solutions and smart city infrastructure deployments that could offer local councils technology to assist in the provision of services including waste collection and traffic management.
‘An exciting milestone’
Colin Cunningham, managing director of Cellnex in Ireland, said: “This is an exciting milestone in the expansion of the business. With the backing of Cellnex we will be able to provide improved mobile reception and broadband speeds to communities all over Ireland.
“News about the impact our towers make is spreading fast by word of mouth and we are now regularly approached by people asking us to come and help their community get better connectivity.”
Tobias Martínez, CEO of Cellnex, added: “We are pleased to welcome Cignal into the Cellnex family of companies. Our ambitious plans will see our portfolio of towers in Ireland nearly double by 2026. Our mission is to work with operators to provide infrastructure in new locations so that they are able to offer improved mobile connectivity and data speeds to their customers.”
