FROM THE INDUSTRY
At the same time, service providers are locked in a race to the bottom on pricing, competing in a sector with some of the lowest customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores of any essential utility. Beneath these pressures sits a deeper problem: broadband was built for devices as opposed to people, and certainly not for children. That design decision is now exposing families and the industry itself. A market competing on speed while value evaporates The alternative network boom promised differentiation and consumer choice. In practice, many providers converged on the same copycat strategy that placed competitive strengths on Openreach and the incumbent ISPs. Aggressive customer acquisition, thin margins and an assumption that scale would resolve operational challenges became common. Instead, Wi-Fi-related issues now dominate support calls. In- home connectivity problems drive rising operational costs. Expectations rise while margins tighten. Customer satisfaction remains stubbornly low, even as networks improve. Consolidation across the alternative network sector is accelerating. Providers without a clear value proposition beyond speed and price are being acquired, merged or exiting the market altogether. This is not simply a funding cycle, it is a structural correction. Connectivity without experience is proving difficult to defend. The policy gap everyone can see but no one can police In parallel, governments are grappling with online harm. Proposals range from social media bans to age verification mandates, school smartphone restrictions and even discussions about restricting VPN use. These policies are understandable, but they are also deeply limited. Age checks can be bypassed. Platform rules apply only where Ofcom has jurisdiction or content providers comply. VPN restrictions focus on paid services, while free, low-quality, malware-ridden alternatives remain widely accessible. Content controls work only on the platforms that comply. The uncomfortable reality is that you cannot fully police the internet without creating a censored internet, and that is not what society wants.
Children will continue to encounter harmful content across devices, platforms and formats. The Netflix drama Adolescence captured this vividly. Radicalisation and misogyny did not emerge through a smartphone alone, but through a gaming laptop. Harm is not device specific. Safety solutions cannot be either. Why third-party apps cannot carry the load The default response has been to outsource safety to third-party apps. These tools can help, but they also reveal the limits of the current model. They are device-specific, not network-wide. They rely on parents discovering, configuring and maintaining them. They are constrained by operating systems and easily bypassed. Critically, they sit outside the service provider’s core experience. The alternative is to have dumb phones, which is another fad, that parents are desperate to use to reduce their problems. When internet service providers rely solely on third-party apps for parental controls or cybersecurity, they fill a gap, but they do not add value. The relationship with the customer weakens. The provider becomes a conduit rather than a partner, and they lose not only trust but also a commercial opportunity.
“The uncomfortable reality is that you cannot fully police the internet without creating a censored internet, and that is not what society wants.”
This is the “dumb pipe” outcome. All the complexity, none of the upside.
The opportunity the industry is missing There is another path, one that aligns safety, commercial relevance and public trust. Broadband providers already connect more than thirty million homes in the UK. That position carries responsibility, but also opportunity. Just as society restricts access to cigarettes through controlled points of sale, the network itself can provide sensible, proportionate access controls without censorship and without surveillance.
This is not about blocking the internet. It is about layered protection.
Network-level safeguards do not replace education, parenting or platform responsibility; they complement them. They create a baseline that is consistent across devices, harder to bypass and
Volume 48 No.1 MARCH 2026
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