Last week, we published a blog, “The Invisible Foundation of AI: Mobile Connectivity Can No Longer Be Overlooked,” which set out a simple but urgent point: mobile networks are the essential infrastructure underpinning the UK’s digital economy, and its future in artificial intelligence.

This week, at London Tech Week, it was good to see the Prime Minister take to the stage to set out the Government’s vision for the UK as an AI superpower. An important speech for the future of the UK. But once again, the fact that mobile network infrastructure will provide a foundational pillar to AI and other frontier technologies was not mentioned.  

The Prime Minister’s speech rightly focused on the building blocks of AI leadership, investment, talent, data and compute. These are all critical. . Yet these ambitions cannot be delivered r if the digital infrastructure that connects them is not in place. For this to happen it is important that this basic fact is recognised as part of the plan, given more focus and not treated as separate albeit important largely consumer issue.  

The simple truth is that AI and any other connected technology can not work in isolation; it depends on connectivity. .

The London Tech Week speech suggests that risk is becoming reality. When connectivity is absent from the highest-level vision for the UK’s digital future, it moves from an invisible enabler to a strategic blind spot, and that has consequences.

AI is not a distant prospect; it is already being deployed across sectors:

• in healthcare, enabling remote diagnostics and monitoring

• in transport, supporting connected and autonomous systems

• in manufacturing, driving automation and real-time optimisation

• in cities, powering smart infrastructure and public services

All of these applications depend on fast, reliable and ubiquitous mobile connectivity. 5G, in particular, is critical. It enables:

• ultra-low latency for real-time decision-making

• the capacity to handle vast quantities of data

• the ability to connect millions of devices simultaneously

Without it, many of the AI use cases highlighted by Government simply cannot scale effectively.  

Even though we are only at the beginning of the AI revolution.  the simple truth is that already today it is estimated that up to 15-20m UK adults are already accessing AI technology via a smartphone - a majority of whom will be using 4G and 5G to do so. This will only increase with the launch of new technology and different applications.  

There is a growing disconnect between the UK’s digital ambition and the policy narrative that supports it. On one hand, the Government is rightly focused on positioning the UK as a global leader in AI. On the other, it is not consistently recognising the role of the infrastructure that makes that leadership possible.

This is not about competing priorities, it is about alignment.

If the UK is serious about its AI ambitions, then connectivity must be brought back to the centre of the conversation. The mobile industry is already investing billions to build the 5G standalone infrastructure the UK needs. But they urgently need to have the right investment, policy and regulatory framework put in place to enable them to able to continue to invest to keep up with the demands of new technologies like AI and consumer demand. They can’t do this alone; it requires a clear and consistent signal from Government that connectivity is a national priority and policy reform that supports delivery of this ambition.  

The existing policy and regulatory framework under which the industry operates was largely designed for a 3G world and is now hopelessly out of date. The good news is that this has been recognised by the Government and a Mobile Market Review is underway. If the right policy reforms can be introduced quickly, this will enable the industry to keep up with the demands that AI and other new cutting-edge technology will place on mobile networks as well as continuing to serve the existing and future demands of us all as consumers.  

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