UK telecoms warn 5G delays risk leaving Britain behind in AI race

Senior telecoms executives are warning that the United Kingdom risks becoming a laggard in the global race to deploy artificial intelligence unless the country's broadband and mobile networks are modernised far faster than they are today. Most of the public debate about AI infrastructure has centred on data centres and their enormous appetite for energy and water. But as AI adoption spreads, industry leaders say the fixed and mobile networks that carry everyday traffic will face a comparable strain, as consumers and businesses generate a growing volume of AI-related data.

A network to be embarrassed by

Andrea Donà, networks director at VodafoneThree — the UK's largest mobile operator, formed from the merger of Vodafone and Three — argues that the country's mobile networks are already struggling to meet today's demands, let alone tomorrow's. Mobile coverage in the UK trails every one of the 27 EU member states and every other G7 country, according to a recent analysis by consumer group Which?, based on data from network intelligence firm Opensignal. The UK ranks 57th globally for overall network performance, 70th for download speeds, and 55th for the reliable quality needed for video calls, streaming and gaming.

I am embarrassed today at the level of quality of our networks.

Donà argues the UK is worthy of what mobile brands EE, O2 and VodafoneThree can offer, but says the sector needs regulatory reform to get there — a message aimed as much at policymakers as at his own industry.

From Wembley to every day

Donà compares the risk of an AI-driven traffic crunch to the signal loss consumers already experience at major public events — a concert at Wembley Stadium, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, or an international rugby match at Twickenham, when tens of thousands of phones compete for the same local capacity. In his view, those occasional, temporary failures are a preview of what daily connectivity could feel like once artificial intelligence becomes a routine, constant drain on network capacity rather than an occasional one.

£11bn to go stand-alone, slowed by planning rules

The UK's main mobile operators are investing heavily in stand-alone 5G technology, which unlocks substantially higher capacity and lower latency than today's networks. VodafoneThree alone has committed £11bn to the upgrade. Yet the industry says planning delays are holding the rollout back. Donà says the company is not seeking to build additional mast sites — in fact it is reducing its nationwide network of masts by 30% — but instead needs to upgrade the sites it already operates. About 96% of VodafoneThree's required upgrades are on existing sites, he says, but more than half of those still require some form of planning permission, a process operators describe as slow and bureaucratic. Donà has urged the government to treat planning reform as a low-cost way to support growth, noting that operators classified as critical national infrastructure do not receive the same business-rate and energy reliefs offered to sectors such as data centres, energy and water.

• UK mobile networks rank 57th in the world for overall performance
• 70th globally for download speeds
• 55th for the reliability needed for calls, streaming and gaming
• Coverage trails all 27 EU states and every other G7 country
• VodafoneThree has pledged £11bn to move to stand-alone 5G
• About 96% of its required upgrades are on sites it already operates, and over half of those still need planning permission

A 'nascent' issue that is set to become strategic

A second senior telecoms executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that although the link between AI and connectivity is currently limited, it is likely to become a matter of national competitiveness within two to three years, once AI capabilities are built into a new generation of everyday devices. The comparison drawn is to the slow rollout of full-fibre broadband over the past decade, which only became a political priority once its absence started to look like a genuine handicap. The executive's warning to policymakers and AI companies alike is that networks tend to be an afterthought — until they become the bottleneck.

The network gap is not the only gap

The UK's connectivity shortfall is not the only obstacle telecoms operators face as they try to keep pace with AI. A separate global study by technology consultancy HTEC, reported by ITBrief UK, surveyed 255 C-suite telecom executives across the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and found that fewer than a quarter — 24.8% — believe their organisation can scale AI rapidly. Nearly all respondents, 99%, reported critical skills shortages, most acutely in cybersecurity and data privacy, AI and machine learning, and data engineering. Close to half, 47.5%, pointed to weak executive alignment as the biggest barrier to scaling AI, and 45.1% said they struggle to integrate AI into legacy network and IT systems. HTEC's researchers estimate operators have, on average, under two years to close that gap before falling permanently behind — a timeline that echoes the urgency UK executives are voicing about physical network capacity.

For UK businesses, the message from industry is blunt: the country's AI ambitions depend on infrastructure decisions that have little to do with AI itself — planning permission for phone masts, business rates for critical infrastructure, and the pace of a 5G rollout that has so far trailed the fibre rollout it followed. Companies planning to deploy AI-heavy products for UK customers, from video-based services to real-time agents, may need to factor in patchy mobile capacity for years yet, and lobby alongside operators for the planning reform that both sides say costs the government nothing to deliver.