Ofcom’s planned projects largely signal a continuation of the regulator’s focus on online safety, spectrum for satellite services, improving mobile connectivity and network resilience
The plan is Inspired by Ofcom’s four key priorities as well as recent Government direction
On 5 December 2025, Ofcom published a consultation on its proposed plan of work for 2026/27 (April 2026-March 2027). The plan highlights Ofcom’s four ongoing priorities, which focus on reliable internet and postal services, ensuring a trustworthy media, online safety and spectrum. Ofcom’s specific proposals are detailed within these priorities, which cover a much broader range of issues such as combatting mobile messaging scams, reviewing the approach to in-contract price rises (after strong direction from the Government in recent weeks), platform transparency requirements (requiring online platforms to detail how they are keeping people safe online) and network resilience. Ofcom is accepting responses until 5 February 2026.
The improvement of mobile coverage and digital infrastructure security is perceived as vital to ensuring reliable connectivity
To support Ofcom’s focus on maintaining a reliable internet, the plan references further work on improving mobile connectivity as one of its key projects for the year, with a vision to strengthen its ‘Map Your Mobile’ coverage checker (which was launched in June 2025), likely with the introduction of more crowdsourcing, the addition of which was seen as inevitable when the checker was first launched. Alongside this, it also plans to work with the Government and local authorities to deliver improved connectivity in the hardest-to-reach areas. In relation to mobile, Ofcom has also set out its plans to assess the resilience of telecoms networks to determine whether additional measures are required to ensure security for critical digital infrastructure. Resilience-related regulatory interventions like these have increased internationally in the wake of severe network outages – in Canada, for example, additional consumer protection provisions such as an auto-compensation system for outages are being consulted on by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) following the 2022 Rogers outage. Additionally, Ofcom will continue its work on the Telecoms Access Review (TAR), with a final decision on this new regulatory framework expected in March 2026. Legacy network migration will feature as a part of a TAR decision but also further afield with an additional focus on preparing for the 2G switch-off. The regulator is also set to publish a statement on how it can combat mobile messaging scams in Q2 of the 2026/27 period.
Spectrum demand for D2D satellite and FWA services will drive Ofcom’s approach to enhancing wireless connectivity
The draft plan gives additional detail on the improvement of connectivity through how spectrum is managed. Most notably, Ofcom is clear that it plans to meet the growing demand for spectrum in space-based activities, particularly for direct-to-device (D2D) satellite services, following the announcement of Virgin Media O2 and BT/EE’s respective partnerships with Starlink and Vodafone’s agreement with AST Space Mobile. The regulator has said it will look to finalise its future approach to the 2GHz MSS frequency band for these space-based services in the year ahead. The plan also commits to do the same in relation to spectrum for fixed wireless access. A statement of Ofcom’s decision on making the upper block of the 1.4GHz band available for this is expected by the end of the 2025/26 financial year, with the regulator hoping to allocate this spectrum in 2026/27.
Following a significant amount of work to implement the Online Safety Act this year, next year will see the final push needed
Ofcom’s implementation of the Online Safety Act (OSA) this year introduced requirements on adult services to deploy age verification mechanisms, saw guidance published on the protection of women and girls and codes of practice for the protection of children from harms online. Looking ahead to the next two years, Ofcom is planning to shift its attention to the publication of its categorisation register in Q2 2026/27, which will subject so-called ‘categorised services’ to new duties. Once this categorisation register is published, categorised services will be required to submit their first transparency reports to Ofcom by Q2 of 2027. Ofcom also plans to encourage increased transparency from platforms on how they keep users safe online.
