Landolina’s “be useful” philosophy: steering Cellnex towards stronger MNOs, digital Britain

Gianluca Landolina, Country CEO of digital infraco Cellnex UK, is a leader who believes in the power of education.

Originally a civil engineer, Landolina moved into management with the completion of his MBA, which was followed by an Advanced Management Programme at Spain’s iconic IESE Business School.

“My engineering mindset helps me to be as analytical as possible, and my management training is used to help me to be as a little of an engineer as possible,” he quips.

This combination has led Landolina to deploy a clear philosophy as he now leads the UK’s largest independent infraco, and underpins his strategic view of the future for not only his business but also the wider sector and the nation’s path towards digitalisation.

Landolina has traversed multiple aspects of the telco sector, from engineering to financial management control, and real estate management. This culminated in his switch from the operator to infrastructure side of the industry in 2015, from where he went on to lead Cellnex Italia’s tripling of its tower estate to around 22,000 before taking the helm at its UK sibling in late-2023. Today, he oversees critical customer relationships with the UK’s three MNOs, stewarding a footprint of 14,000 active sites.

Speaking to TelcoTitans, Landolina shared how he has been undertaking a quiet stakeholder-centric revolution in the UK against a backdrop of wider Cellnex Telecom group recalibration.

This includes how greater emphasis on process is building a better business, why sustainability should be seen as a profit centre in a fast evolving wireless world, and how he believes fewer and stronger customers can be better in a consolidating MNO market.

Developing a proactive understanding of customer needs

Landolina sees a clear opportunity to pursue his philosophy in development of the neutral host space, where “the horizon in front of us, particularly in the UK, is as broad as possible”.

“We are adding a lot of value to improve the quality of coverage”, he says, while sharing that he considers the government to have an “extremely good” understanding of what is required here and to be following the right path towards digitalisation. Expressing eagerness to work in partnership with the public sector to solve the challenges of quality coverage, Landolina is clear that Cellnex is also willing to be proactive with investment, having invested £6.1bn in the UK to date.

A key example is the infraco’s delivery of connectivity along the London to Brighton railway connection. The scale of investment has been significant here, with Cellnex deploying not just towers, but also distributed antenna system along the route, and fibre across all network elements.

“ Wherever there is a need for connectivity, Cellnex can make it possible. For coverage in a rural location, Cellnex is there. Or densification in an urban environment, Cellnex can enable it. If connectivity is needed indoors, Cellnex can be useful there too. In the case of the Brighton Main Line, we’re delivering infrastructure where it’s needed most along an integral stretch of railway that sees hundreds of thousands of travellers a day. ”

Landolina.

This is a clear example of fulfilling Landolina’s “be useful” mantra: “you need to help the traveller enjoy the travel — as simple as that”.

Projects such as the rail upgrade are important for supporting MNO relationships and are a way in which Cellnex is working to bolster its clients’ capabilities, and such activity also needs to deliver “a huge win” for the operators.

Ultimately, “it’s a matter of business”, he asserts: “MNOs have needs that we need to first detect, second fully understand, and then address. So, whenever we invest in advance, we do that because we have analysed the context, studied it in-depth, and understood that the need is real, is big, and we can satisfy it”.

MNO consolidation seen lifting investment, driving growth

In light of this pursuit of sustainable balance, and operating in a market adjusting to the VodafoneThree merger, Landolina says “the capability of being ready to react is the key driver of success”.

This leads him to see the combination of two major customers as an opportunity: “we’re going to have fewer customers, it’s true, but we are going to have stronger customers”.

Landolina considers that having more customers without the headroom and ability to invest does not benefit anyone in the ecosystem, or indeed the country. By contrast, a more concentrated and stabler customer base will open new opportunities — “you have a strong and solid way of growing again in the country, ensuring digitalisation is being approached properly”, he says.

Acknowledging that there may be challenges, as the infrastructure of Vodafone and Three is brought together and other changes ripple through the market, Landolina believes that “the more complicated the context, the easier it is to find opportunities”. He also returns to the importance of understanding the customer’s needs before acting, saying “I expect a much brighter and bigger growth than before the merger, not because I’m pursuing the growth, but because we understood that we needed to listen before talking”.

Cellnex will be getting stronger as well, he says, with its response to change a contributing factor.

“ You can lose points of presence, you can lose single tenants, but if you manage it properly, as we have, you couple that loss with parallel growth that may be even bigger, as it has been for us. ”

Landolina.

Landolina has spent time this year hosting MNO customers, BT/EE, Virgin Media O2 and VodafoneThree.

This included meeting VodafoneThree’s Chief Network Officer Andrea Donà in support of the substantial infrastructure investment commitments, with the Cellnex chief commenting that, “our neutral host solutions and macro infrastructures will contribute to supporting VodafoneThree’s gigantic project in our country, and we are proud to be playing our part”.

Cellnex playing the long game on market restructuring

With Landolina considering Cellnex to share goals with the UK’s MNOs and government, he aims for his business to be “an active driver, and a present actor, in the digitalisation of this country”, ready to work with any entity committed to the same goals.

In this light, he suggests that conversation on the optimal number of networks in a country must be ongoing, whether relating to core or access infrastructure.

Currently, Landolina sees consensus settled on “more or less two main radio access networks”, with four infrastructure operators today managing those networks, and “two being fully or partially captive”. “We are trying to match that need”, he explains, while also seeing a long-term opportunity to do more.

“ We are willing to grow further in this country as an infrastructure operator. The huge work that we did last year in terms of simplification and efficiency, and the huge work that we are continuing on the same project this year, is preparing for growth consistent with that approach. ”

Landolina.

Landolina reflects that while a single mobile network might offer the greatest efficiency, it falls short on safety and resilience that are key needs for critical national infrastructure, and he suggests that two networks could strike a better balance between efficiency and robustness. He adds that the players involved in managing this infrastructure would ideally be more than two, with multiple organisations delivering compatible elements across the architecture.

Although it’s uncertain whether the UK will head in this direction, Landolina is ready to play a role in enabling it.

“ Obviously we want to be ready for that future…. Does that need to happen today? No, but we are preparing now to ensure that when the market is ready, so are we. ”

Landolina.

Cellnex’s role is only likely to become greater, particularly if the MBNL infrastructure-sharing venture between BT and Three winds down within the next six years, which would on dissolution see Cellnex take direct control of thousands of current Three-controlled sites.