‘Significant’ fibre gaps threaten datacentre expansion

The massive acceleration in the use of AI across industries has been a key driver in the necessity of mass build out of datacentres, yet research from Neos Networks warns that such plans may not come to fruition as mass availability fibre remains the critical bottleneck that could slow the UK’s digital growth.

The study, carried out in August 2025 in partnership with Censuswide, surveyed the opinion of 100 datacentre decision-makers, 100 large enterprise tech/IT decision-makers (with at least 1,000 employees), and 100 local government stakeholders. To add to the research findings, Neos also conducted qualitative interviews with UK-based datacentre operator Kao Data and global property consultancy Knight Frank during August and September 2025.

Across all three parties, there was an overwhelming consensus that core fibre networks do and will form the foundation of the UK’s AI infrastructure, and 95% of the operators surveyed said that access to new high-capacity fibre networks will now influence their expansion plans.

Fundamentally, the survey observed that AI was reshaping the UK’s datacentre and digital strategy. It acknowledged that the UK government has set out its ambition to position the country as a global leader in AI, with initiatives such as AI Growth Zones in the AI opportunities action plan central to this vision.

The research showed these policies were already shaping investment and strategy across the ecosystem. Some 96% of datacentre operators said AI Growth Zones were influencing expansion and site selection, with 44% citing them as a strong influence. Just over two-thirds of enterprises viewed AI Growth Zones as a strong driver of change in their infrastructure planning.

Neos said this momentum was fuelling growth corridors beyond London. While 23% of datacentre operators still expect investment in Greater London, a greater share pointed to the North of England and the Midlands (39%), signalling a shift towards regional hubs of AI activity. Neos added that such diversification was mirrored in the way compute is being deployed. Almost all (97%) datacentre operators expected up to half of their UK compute to move to the edge of the network by 2030, underlining the need for high-performance, resilient fibre across every region.

Yet somewhat worryingly, the survey discovered that as many as 82% of UK datacentre operators have delayed site builds or expansion due to fibre availability, and almost half (45%) of enterprises cited fibre as the key bottleneck holding back AI and digital infrastructure. One in six companies (16%) doubted the ability of the UK’s current fibre infrastructure to support their AI ambitions. 41% of datacentre leaders believed the UK’s fibre networks were only partially prepared to support regional AI workloads, and more than 70% of enterprises felt the UK’s attractiveness for datacentre investment needed improvement (53%) or was lagging (17%).

Looking at local government stakeholders, 89% of the cohort reported that fibre gaps have delayed infrastructure projects in their regions with almost half (46%) of local government authorities highlighting that their region’s fibre infrastructure was not fully ready to support AI datacentres.

Yet the report also highlighted a way forward by unlocking opportunity through new fibre backbone projects which were seen as critical to unlocking growth. Nearly all respondents agreed that investment in high-capacity fibre corridors will transform confidence in the UK’s ability to attract and scale AI projects.

Moreover, 95% of datacentre operators, 96% of enterprises and 96% of local authorities said new fibre corridors into underserved areas would positively impact AI and datacentre growth. More than half of local authorities (53%) regarded such projects as potentially transformative for their regions.

Assessing the core trends revealed in the research, Neos Networks CEO Lee Myall said that while the UK has the ambition, the demand and the regional readiness to lead in AI, if the country did not address fibre gaps, it risks losing out on one of the “greatest economic opportunities” of a generation.

“Over the past decade, we’ve seen a huge amount of investment in last-mile fibre builds, but core fibre networks across the country have received much less attention. Without them, workloads cannot move between datacentres, data cannot be trained and investments stall,” he remarked.

“AI is no longer a future ambition, it’s here today, reshaping how businesses, communities and governments operate. But the UK cannot lead in AI on yesterday’s infrastructure, and we need continued investment in the fibre backbones that connect every region of the country. At Neos, we’re committed to building those foundations so the UK can not only keep pace but compete and thrive in the global AI race.”