The UK division of Spain-based tower company Cellnex has acquired indoor cellular connectivity provider Herbert In-Building Wireless (HiBW) for an undisclosed fee. The deal will see the creation of a new Cellnex business unit, called Cellnex UK In-Building Solutions (CUKIS), which will be led by HiBW director Tim Loynes.
HiBW has developed a line in distributed antenna system (DAS) products for the banking, healthcare, pharmaceutical, and commercial sectors; it is part of the family-run Herbert Retail Group. The acquisition demonstrates Cellnex’s ambition to sell wireless infrastructure “across multiple sectors”, it said.
Cellnex’s own in-building telco business in the UK has a high-profile deal with Manchester City’s Etihad stadium, notably, where it is providing neutral host radio infrastructure for UK operators Vodafone and O2. It has similar deployments in Europe, including at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, the San Siro Stadium in Milan, Juventus’ Stadium in Turin, and the Olympic Stadium in Rome.
Meanwhile, Cellnex is supplying private networks, particularly to industrial venues, via its Edzcom business unit. Its strategy is to expand its in-building connectivity supply into new vertical sectors, and to expand it across the horizontal connectivity tack, with the inclusion of high-performance cellular and low-power IoT sensor comms; it owns the Sigfox ultra-narrowband IoT network in Belgium, notably.
David Crawford, managing director at Cellnex UK, said: “I’m really excited about the growth opportunities the acquisition of Herbert In-Building Wireless will create for our customers and for us. By combining HiBW’s agility and diverse customer portfolio with our current strong DAS business and ability to scale, Cellnex UK will be able to provide best-in-class solutions across all industries. I look forward to welcoming Tim and his team on board and growing our business together.”
Loynes, formerly director with HiBW, now director at the new CUKIS business unit , said: “Joining the Cellnex UK team is the perfect next stage of growth for Herbert In-Building Wireless. Together as CUKIS, we have all the components to deliver a market-leading DAS offering to enterprises. I look forward to getting started and driving real growth for our customers and MNO partners.”
