Grace Nelson appeared on BBC News to discuss the ruling in the Department of Justice's antitrust case in the US against Google.

The moves threaten to intensify competition for incumbents EE, Virgin Media O2 and the newly merged VodafoneThree.

Monzo is likely to enter the market as a mobile virtual network operator, which serves customers without building its own underlying infrastructure. MVNOs piggyback on the networks of major telecoms groups and typically then undercut them on price.

James Robinson, senior analyst at Assembly Research, said the new entrants could have a “significant” impact on the UK mobile market.  “[These companies] have millions of customers in the UK to cross-sell services to and will propose attractive offers on price and other terms such as roaming [charges],” he added. 

Accelerating the rollout of 5G SA would unlock £230 billion in economic benefit by 2035, according to analysis by Assembly Research, on behalf of BT. An increase in capacity in the busiest parts of the country would deliver the biggest boost, of about £124 billion, by allowing businesses to adopt new technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics more effectively, in turn increasing the UK’s attractiveness as an investment destination.

“Telecoms stands out as a rare success story among regulated industries,” says Matthew Howett, founder of Assembly Research, praising Ofcom for embracing competition and “giving companies the confidence to invest”.

“While prices in sectors like energy and water have climbed and quality has fallen, telecoms operators have delivered faster, more reliable networks at lower prices than a decade ago. Few industries can boast that consumers can get more, use more, while paying less.”

“Altnets need to be credited with being the catalyst for the speed at which [the rollout] has happened,” says Assembly’s Howett. “It would have happened eventually, but it would probably have been on a much slower, more gradual curve.”

Regulator Ofcom has for several years been drawing up contingency plans in case of a supplier collapse, but these have largely been focused on the scores of “alt-net” firms that have cropped up to challenge the dominance of BT.

“The expectation has always been that it would be an alt-net that would fail, not an established internet service provider”, says Matthew Howett, at Assembly Research.

“The policy interventions in fixed broadband have been good up until now,” says Howett. “It would be a shame to see the TalkTalk saga blemish that reputation.”

Our research was quoted in the Financial Times Lex column on 'Trump Mobile' and the prospects for MVNOs in the US given the different regulatory backdrop to Europe.

Unburdened by the cost of running a network, the MVNOs have competed vinously on price agains the operators from they lease capacity, although some think the challenges could change their approach.

“We’re getting to the stage where even they are realising they have to make some money. They’ve stopped being so aggressive on pricing,” said Matt Howett, the chief executive of Assembly Research.

“Two years is a long time when you’ve got operators who are saying that they can’t meet their cost of capital and that they’re in trouble and need to do something otherwise they’re going to exit the market and consumers suffer,”.

However, he adds that the companies “probably benefited from the delay because of the fact we got a new government that was focused on investment and growth and a realisation from the CMA that coverage isn’t where it should be”.

Most crucial is the prospect of an improvement to the UK’s shoddy mobile coverage, which has been a key priority of the Labour Government under telecoms minister Chris Bryant, as well as regulator Ofcom.

“Clearly the UK’s coverage position is not where it should be relative to other countries,” says Howett.