Report launch: Digital Infrastructure 2035 – The backbone of Britain’s future economy

Time 

Session 

10:00-10:20

Welcome from techUK and report overview 

10:45-11:45

Panel 1: The future of connectivity in the UK  

The UK has made significant progress on gigabit broadband and 5G coverage, but availability is not the same as performance or adoption, and next-generation connectivity from 6G and low Earth orbit satellites (LEO) are on the horizon.   

This panel will examine what it will take to move from a broadly connected country to one with the world-class, high-performance connectivity that the next decade of digital innovation demands, and whether current policy and investment trajectories are sufficient to get there. 

12:30-13:30

Panel 2: Compute, AI and delivering digital services at scale  

The UK has committed to a rapid expansion of its compute capacity by 2030, designated five AI Growth Zones, and attracted significant private sector investment in data centre infrastructure over the last decade. However, investment announcements are not the same as operational infrastructure and barriers to delivering capacity at scale remain.

The UK's data infrastructure is comprised of a diverse mix of enterprise owned hardware, hyperscale cloud services, colocation data centres and edge computing. We are also seeing a potential revolution in how data is processed, with traditional semiconductor architectures being augmented by emerging technologies such as quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, and photonics. This panel will examine what it will take to build the compute and data infrastructure the UK needs to remain competitive, unlock productivity, and accelerate economic growth over the next decade.   

13:45-14:00

Depart