Utility organisations are responsible for some of the UK’s most critical infrastructure and managing such complex infrastructure is increasingly becoming a data-driven task, depending highly on the ability to securely and reliably connect assets, many of which were often not designed for the digital age. Now, research from Ericsson has revealed a significant reliability gap is holding them back from delivering the resilience, security and performance expected of what they support.
The Sector in focus: connecting the UK’s utilities study was conducted by Opinion Matters, among a sample of 500 decision-makers in UK utilities companies with at least 100 employees who have responsibility for connectivity purchasing and/or operations. The data was collected between 5 and 11 August 2026.
Fundamentally, utilities need connectivity that can reliably transmit data from assets in the field to edge applications and enterprise systems, where it can inform operations and decision-making.
As utilities become increasingly reliant on real-time data to monitor and manage critical infrastructure, reliable connectivity is now mission-critical to wider modernisation efforts. Across key infrastructure, 22% described their substations as being fully connected with real-time visibility, alongside 23% for contaminant sensors and 25% for pressure measurement devices.
Automation, remote monitoring, video, artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time decision-making offer utility companies an opportunity to improve the efficiency, reliability and safety of their operations.
Yet applications such as real-time control, live video and automation place very different demands on the network and can only operate effectively and safely with resilient connectivity. Among the key findings of the research was that despite 99.8% of UK utility companies surveyed having connectivity solutions in place for their remote assets, as many as 92% of the companies surveyed who use connectivity for their remote assets admit to having some connectivity downtime.
These limitations are having consequences beyond network performance. Almost a quarter (24%) of utilities companies using connectivity for remote assets noted that such unreliability reduces their ability to meet regulatory requirements, while 21% of them said it causes delays in deploying automation.
The findings also exposed a wider gap between connectivity coverage and performance. Just 22% described their substations as fully connected with reliable, real-time visibility, while only 23% said the same for contaminant sensors and 25% for pressure measurement devices.
The report noted that this reliability gap was particularly significant as utilities rely on connectivity for a growing set of operations. More than a third (34%) of decision-makers surveyed in the utilities sector who use connectivity for their remote assets said real or near real-time collection of control and command signals is critical to their operations, placing greater demands on networks connecting distributed sites and assets.
Ericsson cited video use cases as an example of this, with cameras being an essential source of operational intelligence. Just over a third (35%) of those surveyed using connectivity for remote assets said they’re doing so to access real-time footage for incident detection and analysis. But more than a quarter (26%) using remote-asset connectivity reported reduced security at remote sites because they couldn’t access live video streams, and 19% state poor connectivity increased safety risks.
Just like in other industries, AI usage was raising the stakes for reliable connectivity as utilities looked to data-driven technologies to monitor and maintain infrastructure across vast geographic areas. As many as 98% of UK companies surveyed recognise potential for AI and automation in their operations.
Predictive maintenance and asset monitoring (44%), network optimisation and performance management (44%) and video analytics (42%) were emerging as the leading opportunities to implement technologies; to enable them to identify faults, automate elements of infrastructure management, and extract greater insights from video and asset data. Yet without reliable connectivity, Ericsson warned that organisations risk being unable to access and act on that data when and where it is needed.
Just under a third who are using connectivity for remote assets noted that high latency is holding them back from scaling remote video streaming and 29% highlighting limitations around processing data at the edge. The report showed that modernising utility connectivity faces some barriers. Almost a third of respondents (31%) identify security and compliance requirements as a major obstacle to adopting new connectivity solutions.
Despite these challenges, utilities were found to be recognising the need to invest, with seven in 10 (70%) expecting to improve connectivity for remote assets within the next two years, including almost a quarter (24%) in the next 12 months.
“Our research reveals an overwhelming majority of utility companies in the UK are struggling with connectivity issues, which is a big concern when they are managing such complex environments,” said Paul McHugh, vice-present of sales EMEA for Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions. “The next phase of utility digitisation doesn’t come down to simply connecting more assets – it’s about ensuring those connections are resilient, secure and capable of providing the visibility that utilities depend on.”
