{"id":44496,"date":"2026-01-21T11:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=44496"},"modified":"2026-01-21T11:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:45:11","slug":"ofcom-sets-out-current-progress-and-future-plans-to-uk-prime-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/01\/ofcom-sets-out-current-progress-and-future-plans-to-uk-prime-minister.html","title":{"rendered":"Ofcom Sets Out Current Progress and Future Plans to UK Prime Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK telecoms, media and internet content regulator, Ofcom<\/a>, has this week written to the Prime Minister (Keir Starmer), Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rachel Reeves) and Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Peter Kyle), among others, to update them on how its work is “contributing to innovation, investment and growth in the UK<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

The new Open Letter<\/strong><\/a> is said to cover both Ofcom<\/a>\u2019s achievements since this time last year and what\u2019s coming over the year ahead, which reflects everything from their approach to fixed broadband, mobile connectivity and online safety, to spectrum sharing, satellite<\/a> regulation and TV \/ video streaming etc.<\/p>\n

The letter itself doesn’t really say anything that we haven’t covered before through a variety of different articles over the past year, although some people may find the added context that it delivers to be useful, so we’ve published it in full below.<\/p>\n

Ofcom<\/a> said they remain “committed to promoting economic growth and will continue to engage with Government on this matter<\/em>“. Now, if only they could format their letters with more readily sized paragraphs, to avoid the TL;DR wall of text effect.<\/p>\n

Ofcom’s Open Letter to the Government (19th Jan 2026)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Prime Minister, Chancellor,<\/strong><\/p>\n

In January 2025, Ofcom set out our approach to contributing to economic growth across the UK, capturing our longer-term vision for pro-growth regulation, enabled by competition, innovation and investment. A year on, this letter provides an update on the commitments we made then, and sets out what we are doing in 2026 to further enable growth across the UK. It also sets out how we are streamlining and reducing burdens on industry to allow focus on innovation and investment, to support the Government\u2019s commitment to reduce regulatory burdens by 25%. Finally, it sets out how we approach areas where Government and Parliament have consciously established new regulation which is crucial to the safety and security of the UK \u2013 such as online safety, security and resilience.<\/p>\n

Investment in mobile and broadband infrastructure and connectivity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Driving investment in fibre networks is critical for the reliable, high-speed connectivity that we need to underpin productivity across every sector of the UK economy. In 2021, Ofcom set out a new ten- year framework for economic regulation of fixed networks which was designed to drive significant new investment in fibre broadband, to upgrade the UK\u2019s infrastructure for the future. We consciously chose to drive this by opening up competition to Openreach<\/a>, to maximise innovation, choice and competitive prices for consumers and businesses. Over the past five years our regulatory approach has enabled billions of pounds of investment in new networks, with full-fibre coverage now available at 78% of UK households, compared to just 6% in 2018. At the same time as rapid coverage improvements, the competition we have generated means full-fibre broadband prices have been falling in real terms, so customers are getting better services for less at a time when the cost of living is so critical for so many households. Analysis in our most recent pricing report<\/a> shows that, including promotional discounts, the average monthly price available to new residential customers signing up to a standalone full-fibre broadband service fell by 41% in real terms, to \u00a336, in the three years to September 2024. In light of pressures on household budgets, we are working closely with DSIT to ensure that pricing is fair for consumers. In February, we will publish our next report with data on switching, consumers\u2019 confidence in navigating the market and the prices of telecoms services.<\/p>\n

2026 marks the midpoint in that ten-year strategy. In line with our commitments in the Government\u2019s Regulatory Action Plan last year, we published a consultation on our approach to the next five-year period in March 2025. We will publish the final statement in March this year, setting the rules until 2031 to provide certainty and stability for investors and underpin the final phase of the UK\u2019s full-fibre build.<\/p>\n

People and businesses in the UK expect to be connected where they need, and when they need, which is why we are also prioritising improvements in mobile connectivity. We want consumers to have the tools they need to navigate the market and choose mobile providers based on quality, not just price, encouraging providers to compete on performance and invest in better networks. In March 2025, we committed to overhauling the data consumers can access on mobile coverage and quality by delivering the first phase of our new webchecker, Map Your Mobile. We launched<\/a> this in June 2025, with new features in November 2025. More than half a million people have used Map Your Mobile so far and further improvements are planned during 2026. We also provided support to the CMA in its review of the Vodafone<\/a>\/Three merger last year, the outcome of which has resulted in the companies making a public commitment to invest \u00a311 billion over an eight-year period, which will significantly improve the performance and capacity of their network. More immediate benefits are being felt by consumers, with the integration delivering faster 4G<\/a> speeds for 7 million people, as well as a removal of a total of 16,500 sq\/km of not-spots in the UK.<\/p>\n

Action to deliver further improvements and investment in mobile connectivity requires coordination between government, local authorities and industry as well as the regulator. We will set out later this year our view on what more can be done, and are committed to providing better data and evidence, which will help decision-makers deliver improved outcomes for consumers.<\/p>\n

Releasing highly valuable spectrum for innovation and growth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wireless connectivity requires access to spectrum, which Ofcom manages for the UK. Last year, we made a number of commitments to drive economic growth and innovation by opening up the airwaves to new ways of connecting people and businesses.<\/p>\n

First, we committed to consult on enabling satellite<\/a> direct-to-device (D2D) services. Following consultation, we confirmed in December 2025 that we will authorise the use of most mobile spectrum bands for satellite<\/a> D2D services. Our decision means the UK will be the first country in Western Europe where mobile operators can team up with satellite companies to allow standard smartphones to receive a signal from space. This will provide connectivity to areas of the country that are not covered by terrestrial mobile networks, bringing social and economic benefits in these areas.<\/p>\n

In 2025, we continued our broader work to enable satellite services to support growth and connectivity across the UK, including through authorising satellite broadband providers such as Starlink<\/a> and Amazon<\/a> Leo. We have authorised 9 non-geostationary satellite orbit licences so far and take up of these services continues to increase, with over 110,000 active connections in 2025, up from around 87,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n

We also committed to and completed the auction of very high frequency mmWave spectrum for use by mobile network operators in October 2025. This will support better connectivity in congested areas such as transport hubs and stadiums.<\/p>\n

We are also enabling greater spectrum sharing to extract the maximum benefit for the UK from valuable airwaves:<\/p>\n