Cornerstone’s micro-Edge compute effort with StonesThro may have moved to the next level, with the pair enlisting business connectivity provider Neos Networks to support the underlying connectivity layer.

The UK tower giant has been working with the specialist digital infrastructure-focused consultancy and solutions provider for some time, turning existing mobile tower sites into mini data centers through ruggedized cabinets housing GPUs on‑site.

The latest evolution of their partnership sees Neos Networks being brought in to provide high-capacity connectivity. The Reading-based firm will connect each of the pair's compute-enthused tower sites – located in Milton Keynes, Southampton, and Solihull – to Neos’ national, business‑dedicated network.

The move would allow StonesThro and Cornerstone to provide compute capacity from their distributed nodes to end users across both urban and industrial areas, with the pair vying to build a nationally distributed micro-Edge cloud infrastructure beyond their initial sites.

“Our national footprint is the ideal backbone for Cornerstone and StonesThro’s Edge AI cloud,” said Lee Myall, CEO at Neos Networks. “Through our high-capacity connectivity, we are providing the UK-wide sovereign coverage, optionality and technical resilience required for high-security projects.”

The so-called microscaler project from Cornerstone and StonesThro looks to learn from the failures of multi-access Edge computing (MEC) by capitalizing on the growing need for cloud and AI compute capacity to drive genuine tower-side Edge adoption.

StonesThro CEO Ashley Sellar outlined in a recent conversation with SDxCentral that its initial sites are focusing on workloads for AI inference, video analytics, and other latency‑sensitive applications, with future scale-up looking beyond the South of England to sites further north.

Enlisting Neos into the fold sees the pair add a vendor familiar with using existing infrastructure assets to bolster connectivity. It was brought in last year to support Project Reach, one of the UK’s largest core fiber network deployments in decades, which uses the existing rail network as an effective corridor for new fiber.

The trio positions their collaborative effort as a means of providing secure, “sovereign” connectivity for critical national infrastructure (CNI) customers.

“Working with Neos Networks and Cornerstone allows us to develop and scale sovereign Edge AI infrastructure with national reach,” said Andy Bates, CISO at StonesThro. “Their position as the UK’s largest B2B connectivity provider, alongside their access to the rail network through Project Reach, makes them the ideal collaborator to help us deliver a local solution for local people.”