The debate over where, how, and why Britain allocates its public capital has taken a sophisticated turn. The launch of the Invest in Britain Investability Index, and the subsequent conversations led by metro mayors like Andy Burnham on unlocking UK productivity, are highly welcome entries into a national discussion that has felt directionless for too long.

The report makes an excellent, academically rigorous case for understanding network and complementary effects. It reminds us of a fundamental economic axiom: public investment is warranted only where the private sector will not invest, or will underinvest relative to the social optimum. The true power of public capital is not to displace commercial activity, but to overcome coordination failures, install core long-term infrastructure, bear regulatory risks that deter private capital, and kickstart a multiplier effect across interconnected industries.

The index maps out the structural pillars required to unlock the UK's growth potential—from energy grid resilience to transport networks. Yet, as you read through its criteria, an extraordinary omission becomes clear.

Digital connectivity, and specifically mobile infrastructure, has been left completely off the public investment ledger.

Once again, mobile networks have fallen into the trap of being treated as an invisible utility. Because the signals travel through the air rather than down a visible iron track or concrete pipeline, it is routinely omitted from the big-picture national economic discussion on capital allocation.

This is a critical blind spot. Mobile connectivity is not a luxury, nor is it merely a separate sector to be siloed off; it is Critical National Infrastructure (CNI). More importantly, it is the invisible thread that holds Britain together and acts as the ultimate enabler for every single other pillar listed in the investability index.

You cannot have a modern, resilient power grid without the advanced machine-to-machine mobile telemetry to manage load. You cannot fix UK productivity or reform public utilities without seamless digital integration. And you certainly cannot address regional transport productivity if a commuter’s train journey means staring at a spinning loading wheel.

The data tells us that the status quo is untenable. Campaigns like Buffering Britain have starkly illuminated our international standing, revealing that the UK languishes in the bottom third of global league tables for mobile performance—sitting 59th in the world for mobile download speeds, behind nations like Kazakhstan, Peru, and Vietnam.

This reality is echoed by Ofcom's recent landmark discussion paper, Connectivity You Can Count On. The regulator’s message was a sobering wake-up call: our national focus must urgently pivot from basic geographic coverage maps to real-world, dependable quality. When the best-performing mobile networks meet Ofcom's "Good Performance" threshold less than half the time on our busiest rail lines, it is clear that Britain's digital foundation requires a reset.

The root cause of this lag is not a lack of commercial ambition, but a long-standing political and regulatory lack of urgency. For too long, there has been a comfortable complacency among policy makers—a false belief that because mobile operators have historically dug deep to deploy 4G and early 5G, the sector is simply "forging ahead" on its own steam.

But we have reached a critical juncture. The ongoing Mobile Market Review (MMR) represents a once-in-a-generation regulatory crossroads. It is vital that the national discussion around public investment makes direct reference to this review. The capital expenditure required to transition the UK from basic 5G to true 5G Standalone (5GSA)—the technology that actually unlocks smart manufacturing, precision agriculture, and systemic productivity gains—is massive.

If we apply the Investability Index’s own logic regarding network effects, mobile connectivity should be at the absolute top of the priority list. Look at the numbers: for every £1 invested by mobile network operators, £5 of economic value is generated across the wider economy.

There is an enormous pool of private capital ready to build the infrastructure Britain needs, but the market and coordination failures are structural. Hurdles in local planning and a lack of cross-sector coordination across major transport corridors act as a massive drag on commercial deployment.

This is exactly where the strategic application of public capital and political will is justified. Public investment must step in to solve these coordination failures—whether that means funding core infrastructure in market-failure areas to ensure rural coverage, underwriting power resilience for critical mast sites, or directly tackling the regulatory and policy risks that stall rail-side deployment.

At Mobile UK, our message is clear: now is the time to Mobilise Britain.

We need to mobilise every actor in the ecosystem. This means Government matching its pro-growth rhetoric with concrete policy priorities. It means local authorities fast-tracking planning reforms rather than blocking infrastructure, landlords treating masts as a vital community utility, and transport operators actively collaborating on rolling-stock upgrades.

Britain is undergoing profound political and structural changes. In times of transition, it is dangerously easy for long-term digital strategy to become a casualty of shifting political winds. We cannot let that happen.

If we truly want to improve UK productivity, kickstart commercial activity, and build an economy capable of competing globally, our public investment strategies must stop treating digital connectivity as an afterthought. It is time to look at the invisible thread holding our economy together, recognise its unmatched multiplier effect, and finally give mobile infrastructure the status, investment, and priority it deserves within the national growth agenda.

This article was authored by Gareth Elliott, Director of Policy and Communications at Mobile UK and can be found in its original form here.

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