The UK Government, through the Department for Business and Trade, has published its long-term Smart Data Strategy Smart Data 2035”. This sets out a roadmap to expand regulated data-sharing schemes across the economy, building on the success of Open Banking. This briefing summarises what the strategy is, what is changing, and what it means for local authorities.

The UK Government, through Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and UK Research and Innovation, has launched a new Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT) R&D programme.

In our previous article, we explored how local authorities must move from fragmented data to integrated, contextual intelligence to unlock AI and improve service delivery. More recently, our observations at Mobile World Congress reinforced that this data foundation is now evolving into operational platforms such as digital twins and real-time city systems.

The UK Government has published its UK Compute Roadmap, setting out how it will scale national compute capacity to support AI, research and economic growth. Alongside this, recent announcements on AI Growth Zones and fusion investment reinforce a broader shift: compute, energy and digital infrastructure are now being treated as a single, interdependent system.

Mobile World Congress 2026 reinforced that the telecoms industry is entering a new phase. The focus is shifting away from deploying connectivity infrastructure toward extracting economic value from networks through real-world applications.

Is your council ready for AI? Learn how to overcome legacy systems and siloed data to build a scalable AI foundation with a D&A Maturity Assessment.

The UK Government has renewed its regulatory steer to Ofcom, prioritizing 5G evolution, infrastructure competition, and resilience. This briefing note breaks down the five key priorities and what they mean practically for Local Authorities and Network Operators.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has launched a Mobile Market Review – Call for Evidence to assess whether the UK mobile market is structured to deliver sustainable investment, competition and innovation over the next decade.

83% of CIOs are reassessing public cloud usage. Is your data truly sovereign? Discover why jurisdiction matters for public sector resilience and how to regain control.