The connectivity landscape in the UK has changed dramatically in 2025, on account of rapid network and infrastructure expansion. However, the country is still falling behind in some areas, including 5G and AI – resulting in rapid market change and new players entering the scene.

Lee Myall, CEO of Neos Networks, shares his insights into the state of the UK telecoms market and the potential of technologies like AI amid a turbulent industry landscape.

“AI is about to reshape the UK’s connectivity landscape faster than most people realise,” he said. “The traffic patterns we’re beginning to see around emerging AI and data-centre growth zones are fundamentally different – more volatile, more capacity – hungry and far less predictable than traditional cloud workloads.”

Getting ahead of AI

In order to serve this changing market, Myall explained that the UK will require a new generation of high-performance infrastructure.

“We’re already seeing the early signals in the accelerating demand for longer-haul, high fibre-count dark fibre and customers are migrating onto newer, more capable infrastructure far sooner than previous cycles would have suggested,” he said.

However, the sector now moves differently than it has done before. For one thing, operators are now building with more caution and greater cooperation across the industry.

“You can’t simply flood the market with new fibre anymore,” Myall added. “What we’ll see over the next few years is a more disciplined, more strategically targeted supply of fibre to meet the Higher and more volatile traffic driven by AI.

“This will ensure that the UK’s backbone is aligned to where real AI-era demand is actually emerging.”

The rising power and influence of Altnets

As fibre is built out even more, Myall noted that altnets (alternative network providers) will differentiate themselves more in the wider market.

“Altnets have taken a lot of heat over the past year, with consolidation pressure and no shortage of commentary about the finance models,” he added. “The reality is they’ve now laid down an extraordinary amount of last-mile capacity across the UK, bringing more competition to the market.”

He added that, regardless of if individual players consolidate or change hands, existing fibre will be critical for the UK’s long-term digital foundation. This could mean that the next phase will see altnets shifting from a race to build to a race to differentiate.

“We’ll start to see much sharper service-layer innovation on top of the networks they’ve already deployed, such as integrated security services, smarter managed access solutions and more advanced home and SME packages,” Myall noted.

“While the landscape may be changing, altnet innovation will continue through 2026.”

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