Procurement and Partnerships

As the trade association for mobile network operators in the UK, Mobile UK is dedicated to working with Government, regulators, civil society and others to harness the power of mobile to improve the lives of our customers and the prosperity of the UK as a whole. They have explored how local authorities will play a key role in the rollout of 5G and have published a report with best practice and information on the local authorities that are already taking steps to enable better cooperation and assisting the mobile industry, as well as a checklist for local authorities.  Their local authority 5G guide also clearly outlines the benefits that 5G can deliver to places. Mobile UK can be a valuable body for local authorities to work with in order to ensure positive interactions with the mobile network operators.

Publishing the assets, such as street furniture, that can be used for the deployment of infrastructure is an important first step. Such an approach has been taken by Glasgow, Oxfordshire, Scottish Future Trust and WM5G. Making asset catalogues easily accessible to industry enables seamless working between infrastructure builders, operators and places. The Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator funded pilots to explore the development of digital asset management platforms to simplify and provide a common approach to this process.  Find out more about the Government's Smart Infrastructure Pilots Programme.

Standardised fees and commercial agreements make it easy for infrastructure operators to work with you.  Glasgow's standardised and transparent approach to fees and commercial agreements, minimises the time needed for negotiations and helps investors understand exact costs of deploying in the city. The West London Alliance is focused on creating transparent processes across all seven boroughs, with common templates to facilitate engagement and negotiation with operators. 

Scotland's Infralink programme believes standardising the engagement between potential landlord and tenant as much as possible, benefits both sides through more efficient negotiations and greater certainty. Their toolkit, designed to work across assets and geographies, contains standard documents for leases, wayleaves and Master Agreements as well as payment guidance. The toolkit aims to take a ‘different’ approach to negotiations, focusing on balanced and standardised starting points and engagement.

Cambridgeshire's Enabling Digital Delivery service is a barrier busting team that works with network providers, telecoms operators, housing developers and council teams to resolve fixed and mobile infrastructure issues including wayleaves, street works permits and infrastructure problems and planning. Providing key transport, business and housing data helps network providers plan future investments, while their Street Works Guidance outlines best practice for engaging with their Street Works team, increasing successful permit applications and work approvals.

Glasgow also provides a wealth of planning advice and guidance to smooth the planning process. They allow network builders and operators to deploy their technologies as and where required, rather than trying to ‘architect’ the digital fabric of the city. The West London Alliance is also focused on identification and resolution of common blockers to facilitate strong engagement with operators. While the Barrier Busting Task Force contains a number of resources to support local authorities.

Many local authorities use property and land agents to provide additional resources, expertise and capacity in the management of their assets.  WM5G and Scottish Futures Trust both told us that when used, agents must be aware of the ambitions of digital infrastructure programmes, as well as instructed and empowered to respond appropriately in support of the delivery of digital strategies. This may require a review of asset management strategies and identification of standing orders that are potentially obstructive to the deployment of digital infrastructure, such as moratoria on specific uses of local authority assets. 

In counties with multiple administrations, or towns or places that independently may not be seen as an attractive prospect for industry investment, collaborations and alliances can increase your investability. For instance, local authorities in Oxfordshire signed a joint MoU, and in Essex and Herts five authorities formed a Digital Innovation Zone (DIZ) along with social care, local acute care and strategic health providers, educational establishments, charities and private sector partners.

The DIZ was created out of the recognition that there was no ‘go-to’ organisation or individual that potential investors could approach to discuss digital infrastructure. By bringing together a community of local organisations and agencies in a single place they aimed to create a more attractive proposition for investors and fulfill their ambition to be “the best connected place of its type in the UK”. Similarly the Tay Cities Digital Partnership brings together four local authorities who jointly seek funding for projects and engage with the private sector as one body.

Such alliances can also be valuable in dense urban areas. The West London Alliance is exploring what levers the area may have to increase the attractiveness of the boroughs to potential investors, with a view to connecting all locations including ‘not spots’. 

Soft market testing can help you better understand the appetite of infrastructure builders and operators to invest in your area, based on the assets that could be made available.  Glasgow City Council took this step in 2018 and the PIN they issued to facilitate this can easily be adapted by other places. See their PIN here. Sunderland conducted a similar exercise and produced a prospectus for potential investors.

5G - and specifically neutral host - could provide potential revenue streams to local authorities.  However, many of the local authorities, including Glasgow and Oxfordshire, are prioritising the desire for ubiquitous connectivity over revenue generation. Similarly Norfolk County Council has decided to make local council sites available to mobile network operators at below market rates.

Sunderland has taken a slightly different approach: they are investing an equal share of capital with corporate partner BAI and will share revenue. By becoming the anchor tenant of the newly deployed infrastructure, they are also mitigating the commercial risk to BAI; a strategy Mobile UK identifies can also help enable connectivity in areas that might otherwise struggle to be commercially viable. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has created a Joint Venture with Cambridge University - Light Blue Fibre Ltd - to make ducts and fibres available on a commercial wholesale basis.

Once you’ve decided on the right business model for your authority, commercial agreements will need to be put in place, which may be unlike those you’ve previously created. In such instances you may find the Government guidance on access agreements useful; WM5G has utilised this for the development of their agreements for digital infrastructure. Glasgow City Council has developed rental agreement templates for everything from small to macro cell access. They can also be easily adapted and applied to other places; WM5G made use of their small cell agreement for example.  

The Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator programme worked with local authorities to identify best practice in existing small cell legal agreements. Three examples of best practice were identified and published on the respective local authority websites, including standard redacted agreements and small cell toolkits. Links to these contracts can be found on the DCMS Connectivity portal. Other local authorities can use these standard contracts as a starting point for developing their own agreements.

For larger scale procurements, you may wish to use Crown Commercial contracts; both Sunderland and Oxfordshire used RM6095 to procure a dark fibre network and infrastructure deployment respectively. Sunderland also used RM3808 to procure a 5G private network.

The Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator programme analysed the impact of private finance initiative (PFI) contracts, relating to the use of street furniture assets. The Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) jointly undertook a survey with local authorities to ascertain the scale of the problem and found almost half (42%) of local authorities have a contractual issue, which prohibits the installation of telecoms equipment on the PFI assets. 59% said that they have been approached regarding the installation of small cells.

DfT and DCMS  worked closely with three ‘pilot’ local authorities to support short term and long term contractual solutions to facilitate the deployment of telecoms equipment. As part of this a temporary ‘de-accrual’ solution was finalised and shared with local authorities and long-term options including ‘deed of variation’ and ‘change mechanism’ are being worked on.

If you have a question on PFIs, or would like more insight on this work, please contact: dcia-info@dcms.gov.uk or PFIPortfolio@dft.gov.uk.

A strong governance process enables you to regularly monitor progress for both deployment and as you look at utilisation and assessment of business cases. All local authorities we spoke to, from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to Oxfordshire, Sunderland and Glasgow, were very clear that a dedicated governance board was critical to ensure progress is kept on track and the initial vision is realised. The terms of reference for the Glasgow Digital Board can be a useful starting point for any place looking to define the role of a governance board, while the governance structure used by Sunderland can be easily adapted.

Clearly defined communication and access channels for industry partners make it easier for everyone to work together. The Digital Infrastructure Portal suggests local authorities appoint a digital infrastructure coordinator to act as the account manager for industry. 

In Glasgow, a separate Telecoms Unit was set up which acts as the single point of access for digital infrastructure industry and service providers. It provides an escalation route to ensure prompt resolution to industry queries. This structure reflects Glasgow’s strategy to encourage all investors to engage with the council, rather than conducting a procurement exercise. WM5G has also successfully deployed Digital Champions & Coordinators in the region to assess barriers to deployment and liaise with all partners.  

Mobile UK recommends regular catch up meetings and round tables to support a collaborative approach between the mobile industry, local political and business leaders. 

BSI has published PAS 180 - focused on smart city terminology and 181:2014 - a smart city framework designed to act as a guide for establishing strategies for smart cities and communities. It covers a number of elements, including the economics surrounding smart city development. The publicly available specification (PAS) was developed with inputs from a number of organisations including Royal Borough of Greenwich, Leeds City Council, Birmingham City Council and Peterborough City Council.

As part of the Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator programme, a Physical Security study was conducted to explore the physical security landscape of street infrastructure. The findings from that report informed the creations of two PAS' for smart lamp posts, developed by BSI:

- PAS 190 provides a design specification to help local authorities understand what smart lighting columns are needed to support their long-term community plan;

- PAS 191 supports decision making on whether existing lighting columns are suitable to be connected, and / or potentially upgraded with modifications, to accommodate advanced technologies.