Ofcom’s latest discussion paper, Connectivity You Can Count On, delivers a clear message: the UK's current mobile user experience is not where it needs to be. For anyone who has struggled to load a webpage on a train or lost signal in a rural community, the frustration is real.

At Mobile UK we agree with the regulator's central pivot: our national focus must shift from basic geographic coverage to delivering real, dependable quality. But as Ofcom rightly concludes, achieving this level of reliable mobile connectivity requires a coordinated national effort—with industry, government, local authorities, and landlords all playing their part.

To answer this call, we beleive it is time to Mobilise Britain.

Britain was a pioneer of the mobile phone and mobile connectivity and it can be again if the right partnerships, support, rules and regulations are put in place.

The UK's mobile operators stand ready to deliver. Over the years, intense market competition has driven massive investment to expand 4G and roll out 5G. In total, operators have spent nearly £100 billion building out the country's networks. However, a staggering £40 billion of that total has been swallowed up by spectrum licences and regulatory fees. That is capital that could have been directly deployed into masts, antennae, and rural coverage.

To achieve Ofcom's call for a 90% performance benchmark, or where people are on average are able to get mobile connectivity that supports everyday apps and services at least nine out of ten times across the UK, we must break down the persistent barriers that hold investment and deployment back. We need to mobilise every tool at our disposal:

• Mobilise Deployment: We must fast-track planning reform to reduce local authority refusal rates and speed up infrastructure rollouts.

• Mobilise Innovation: We must maintain a net neutrality framework that encourages operators to develop innovative, high-quality services.

• Mobilise Investment: We must urgently reform annual licence fees, a tax on mobile operators, to free up capital for network upgrades, and ensure optimum spectrum availability so operators can maximise network capacity.

However, breaking down barriers is only half the battle. We also need a fundamental shift in how digital infrastructure is viewed at the highest levels. Mobile connectivity is no longer a luxury; it is critical national infrastructure, as essential to modern life as energy or water.

We need the government to mobilise its opinion on this vital utility and match its rhetoric with policy priorities. Ofcom's report correctly identifies rural coverage, power resilience, and rail connectivity as urgent areas for improvement. The industry is committed to these goals, but the state must be prepared to step in and invest public funds where the commercial market cannot scale alone.

The UK has historically poured tens of billions of pounds into upgrading roads, rail, water, aviation, and energy networks. It is time to elevate mobile and digital connectivity into that exact same realm.

Let’s stop treating mobile network deployment as an afterthought. It is time to work together, break down the barriers, and truly Mobilise Britain.

This article can also be read on LinkedIn here.

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