Connected Britain 2025, brings together industry leaders, policymakers, innovators, and stakeholders to discuss the future of digital infrastructure, broadband, and mobile networks. While many of the themes from last year’s conference and Connected North remain the same, there is a clear shift in focus from infrastructure build to adoption and value realisation in the built network. The spotlight is now on accelerating full fibre and 5G uptake and recognising connectivity as a strategic enabler rather than just a commodity. This blog explores the most significant insights and key trends that emerged from the conference, highlighting how they will influence the UK’s continued journey towards a fully connected, digitally inclusive society.
Paying tribute to the musical interlude that kicked off the conference this year, and inspired by the Brodies Telecoms team trip to the ABBA Voyage, there are a few ABBA song titles and lyrics littered throughout this blog, connected to the key takeaways from the conference.
1. What’s the Name of the Game: Accelerating Full Fibre and 5G Rollout and Adoption.
One of the central themes of Connected Britain 2025 was accelerating the adoption, uptake and penetration of this “once in a generation” investment in our full fibre and 5G infrastructure across the UK and addressing sustainable competition and the way in which connectivity is viewed as a commodity instead of part of the supply chain to achieve this.
2. S.O.S – Regulation Evolution, Policy Support and Market Dynamics.
Regulatory frameworks and government policies were a major focus with an emphasis on cohesion between government, local authorities, and private sector providers in order for the accrued value and certainty of return on this investment to be realised. The key takeaways to overcoming rollout and adoption challenges include the usual challenges such as:
- the importance of governmental and regulatory policy (via Ofcom) to showcase that the investment in this critical connectivity infrastructure is viable sustainable, investment and to drive economic growth;
- consensus for more flexible regulation to keep pace with technological change;
- simplification and streamlining of the planning process (for example, flexi-permits to boost Street Works);
- clearer spectrum policies; and
- greater support for infrastructure investment.
However, one of the most significant barriers facing telecoms operators is the “government-inflicted costs” of up to 10x payable by their EU counterparts (according to BT chief executive, Allison Kirkby) and the impact the upcoming November budget may have on operators and providers.
3. The Winner Takes It All - Competition.
The ambition of telecoms providers has seen significant investment in infrastructure to improve coverage across the UK. While the UK continues to lag behind other countries in the rollout of 5G, take up of full fibre is increasing with altnets taking an increasing share. While Market consolidation is inevitable, the timing is key to maintaining sustainable competition and innovative market.
The competitive tension was self-evident between the policy objective to create fair competition and the softening of restrictions in the next 5 years, raising some complex empirical questions regarding the boundaries of competition. For example at what point should Openreach have the ability to offer incentives (via discounting or other measures) to encourage the move off its copper network and compete in full fibre uptake, while ensuring vulnerable customers are not overlooked. Pressure is mounting on Ofcom to maintain restrictions in the next Telecoms Access Review (TAR) and set clear deregulation thresholds to avoid BT (via Openreach) reasserting single dominance until there are viable competitors (with altnets still afforded the opportunity to realise the value in their assets, whether through consolidation or wholesale of the network).
4. Money, Money, Money – telecoms as a strategic enabler rather than a commodity.
To fully realise the benefits of the recently announced £150bn investment in sectors such as AI and data centres, telecoms providers should not be seen as peripheral “commodity” stakeholders, but as integral partners in the delivery chain. The telecoms infrastructure and expertise are essential to:
- implementing innovative solutions/products to enhance capability and ensure the connectivity backbone is robust, resilient, and scalable for the relevant use cases (and advanced connectivity and private networks, IoT and 5G will play a vital role in supporting these advanced technological objectives);
- ensuring early and “sovereign” involvement to prevent digital infrastructure lag (whether this is through operational control within the UK or network sovereignty);
- embedding appropriate measures in the infrastructure to ensure this is quantum secure; and
- fostering collaborative ecosystems with other key sectors (such as water, healthcare etc) is ripe to facilitate growth.
5. Knowing Me, Knowing You - Bridging the Digital Divide.
Despite the progress in connectivity and coverage, the digital divide persists, especially affecting rural, low-income, and vulnerable communities. Going forward the focus should include:
- boosting uptake of social tariffs and digital skills training;
- more holistic, sustainable models, for example where the connection is provided to local / housing authorities directly to manage public sector assets and service delivery to those communities (by monitoring damp and energy usage, and helping citizens with social inclusion in a digital world).
6. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! – Sustainability.
This was another important topic with industry leaders showcasing initiatives for reducing the carbon footprint of digital infrastructure, from energy-efficient data centres and renewable-powered networks to smart places, circular economies and hardware recycling. There is growing recognition that data, AI, and connectivity can be harnessed to build more sustainable public services, transport systems, and buildings—turning infrastructure into intelligent ecosystems that adapt, optimise, and reduce waste. Cross-sector partnerships and aligned investment strategies will be essential to deliver on the UK’s sustainability ambitions, embedded in practice, not just in policy.
7. I Have a Dream - Collaboration and Innovation.
The power of collaboration, cohesion and innovation in driving the connectivity agenda is a continuing theme. Partnerships between telecoms operators, local councils, technology firms, and community groups are unlocking new solutions to longstanding challenges. The conference offered a glimpse into a future where open innovation ecosystems will be fundamental in developing resilient, secure, and inclusive networks, such as how advanced connectivity and private networks are reshaping UK businesses, for example digital infrastructure in ensuring seamless, reliable journeys for passengers across the UK’s transport network, and transforming connectivity within airports, stations and onboard transportation.
When All is Said and Done
Connected Britain 2025 demonstrated that the UK is committed on its path towards a digitally empowered future, where high-quality connectivity supports economic growth, social wellbeing, and environmental stewardship. Now the summer is over…and when all is said and done, these key takeaways will continue to shape the national telecoms and digital conversation in the years ahead.
Please visit our dedicated Telecoms webpage for more information on our team and what we can offer at Brodies LLP to support the telcoms sector.
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