As the UK accelerates its digital transformation, the convergence of satellite, private networks, and IoT technologies presents a pivotal opportunity to enhance national connectivity, resilience, and innovation.  

This integrated roundtable explores how digitalisation can drive the expansion of trials and testbeds, enabling more agile, interoperable, and secure communications infrastructure. By bringing together key stakeholders from government, academia, and industry, the discussion will identify barriers to innovation, promote data-sharing frameworks, and align cross-departmental strategies.  

The goal is to develop a cohesive roadmap that strengthens the UK’s critical national infrastructure (CNI) through digitally enabled, resilient, and future-ready communications systems. 

Roundtable details 

• Location: techUK office

• Date: Thursday 29 January 

• Time: 10:30-12:30 

Agenda 

Full speaker line up will be announced shortly.

Key Objectives 

• Explore how emerging technologies—enabled by enhanced digital connectivity—can drive efficiency, innovation, and smarter decision-making across sectors. 

• Identify opportunities to expand and digitally enhance trials and testbeds to support scalable, secure, and interoperable technology solutions. 

• Discuss how digital infrastructure, particularly satellite and private networks, can contribute to the resilience and redundancy of critical systems. 

• Tackle challenges related to data access, regulatory constraints, and system integration that hinder the full potential of digital transformation. 

• Focus on how digitalisation can reduce operational costs, improve service reliability, and enhance user experiences across public and private domains. 

Expected Outcomes 

• Align strategies and policies across departments and industries to support a unified approach to digital infrastructure and innovation. 

• Clear proposals for expanding and enhancing the UK’s testbed ecosystem to support scalable, secure, and interoperable digital technologies, including satellite and private 5G/IoT. 

• A consolidated view of the technical, regulatory, and operational challenges hindering digital transformation, with proposals for addressing them. 

Background 

The UK is undergoing a significant shift in its communications infrastructure, marked by the migration from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to mobile and IP-based systems. This transition, while enabling greater digitalisation, has exposed critical vulnerabilities in the resilience of national infrastructure—particularly in sectors like water, energy, and transport.  

Technological advancements in satellite, private 5G, and hybrid networks present new opportunities to enhance digital connectivity and resilience. Stakeholders from across government, industry, and academia are increasingly recognising the potential of these technologies to support real-time data exchange, improve operational efficiency, and future-proof infrastructure.  

However, challenges remain, including the need for regulatory clarity, sustainable funding models, and standardisation across sectors. This conversation builds on these insights to explore how digitalisation can be harnessed to expand the UK’s testbed ecosystem, overcome innovation barriers, and develop a strategic framework for resilient, secure, and interoperable communications infrastructure.