On 5 June, the UK government published its first comprehensive sector study of the Advanced Connectivity Technologies industry. It said a £32.9 billion ecosystem covering everything from 5G to satellite communications, LiFi, and the early architecture of 6G. The document is a stocktake and a strategic signal simultaneously. Britain is not trying to compete with China or the United States at the mass-market end of connectivity. It is positioning itself in the infrastructure layer that sits between ground, sky, and space — and where control of that layer matters most.
What the Government Found
UK ACT revenue reached £32.9 billion in 2025, generating £13.2 billion in gross value added and supporting approximately 109,400 jobs across 501 companies. That figure of 501 companies represents roughly 4% of the UK’s broader telecoms sector. It reflects a concentrated and highly specialised industry rather than a mass-market one.
UK ACT revenue is forecast to reach £62.8 billion by 2031. This would nearly double the sector’s size within six years, based on current baseline figures and projected growth rates. The high-growth categories driving that projection are Very Low Earth Orbit satellite systems and LiFi, both forecast to record the highest growth rates of any ACT category over the period.
The report covers the full technology stack: 5G and 5G Advanced, 6G research, Open RAN, satellite communications, non-terrestrial networks, high-altitude platforms, fibre optics, photonics, LiFi, and IoT-oriented low-power networks. Taken together, these technologies describe not the mobile phone network of today but the infrastructure architecture of the next decade. They will provide the systems that power AI, autonomous vehicles, remote sensing, and distributed computing.
Where Britain Has a Genuine Edge
The most strategically significant finding is the UK’s relative strength in non-terrestrial networks — satellite communications, high-altitude platforms, and space-based connectivity. The report identifies this as the area where British competitive positioning is most differentiated from peer nations.
That assessment connects directly to a broader strategic picture. At Mobile World Congress in March 2026, the UK co-launched the Global Coalition on Telecoms 6G Security and Resilience Principles. It did so alongside the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, Sweden, and Finland. The coalition’s principles set out expectations for secure, resilient next-generation networks — including ensuring 6G networks are protected from cyber and physical threats, have resilient supply chains, and can provide continuous reliable service. Britain is not just a technology developer here. It is a standard-setter and a coalition builder.
The Open RAN push reinforces this positioning. The UK has invested over £314 million through its 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy. This funding aims to reduce dependence on Huawei-era telecoms infrastructure and to develop an open, interoperable alternative. Open RAN concepts are now mainstream in radio access network design, with over 80% of global operators expecting the technology to be “important” or “very important” to 6G development. Britain’s early investment in this architecture gives it credibility in the 6G standards conversation that is beginning now.
6G Is Not a Phone Network
The government’s framing of 6G deserves attention. The report frames 6G not as the next iteration of mobile telephony but as an integrated architecture. It connects terrestrial networks, satellite systems, and cloud infrastructure into a single operational layer. That framing matches the emerging international consensus: 6G will be as much an industrial and defence infrastructure as a consumer communications system.
DSIT has launched the UK Telecoms Innovation Network and the SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre to accelerate 6G development. These initiatives bring together academia and private sector players to foster innovation in open RAN, advanced connectivity, and secure systems. The 3GPP standards process for 6G is expected to begin in 2027, with first commercial chipsets requiring approximately 18 months of development after that. Britain is placing its bets in the pre-standards window. This is the period when the architecture is still being defined, and national influence is at its strongest.
As explored in “Europe’s Chips Act 2.0,” the broader Western strategic calculation is shifting toward controlling the chokepoints of next-generation digital infrastructure rather than competing for mass-market volume. Britain’s ACT strategy reflects the same logic, applied specifically to the connectivity layer.
The Skills Gap That Could Undermine Everything
The report’s most sobering finding is the workforce data. Approximately 60% of telecoms engineers are over 50. The sector faces a potential shortfall of around 30,000 specialists over the next decade. At postgraduate level — the primary training pipeline for advanced connectivity expertise — approximately 68% of students are international.
That last figure is the most structurally concerning. International postgraduate students are a legitimate and valuable part of any research ecosystem. But building a strategic national capability on a pipeline that is two-thirds composed of people who may not remain in the UK after graduation is a fragile foundation. The report acknowledges this directly: satellite-related educational provision is described as “relatively limited given the strategic importance attached to NTN in the wider market analysis.”
Britain has identified the right strategic priorities. The question the workforce data raises is whether the domestic human capital base can support them at the scale and speed the market projections assume. That gap — between strategic ambition and domestic talent supply — is the variable the sector study cannot resolve and the government cannot afford to ignore.
Key Sources
- UK Government / DSIT, “Advanced Connectivity Technologies Sector Study 2026”: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advanced-connectivity-technologies-sector-study-2026/advanced-connectivity-technologies-sector-study-2026
- Global Coalition on Telecoms, “6G Security and Resilience Principles”, March 2026: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/launch-of-the-global-coalition-on-telecoms-6g-security-and-resilience-principles/launch-of-the-global-coalition-on-telecoms-6g-security-and-resilience-principles
- Computer Weekly, “Global Open RAN suppliers scale advanced connectivity in UK”: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366634146/Global-Open-RAN-suppliers-scale-advanced-connectivity-in-UK
- ISPreview UK, “Government publish results from 19 UK 5G Open Network projects”: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/04/government-publish-results-from-19-uk-5g-open-network-projects.html
- Light Reading, “Open RAN influence runs deep”: https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/open-ran-influence-runs-deep
Subscribe to EuroLuminant for independent European journalism.
