The UK’s utility sector faces ageing infrastructure, rising demand, climate resilience and regulatory scrutiny. The sector suffers skills shortages, and operational risk just continues to increase. To tackle these, billions of pounds are being spent. As part of this, there is often a focus on digital transformation to provide some of the answer. However, investment alone here will not deliver the resilience regulators and customers expect today. And, neither will some aspects of digital transformation.
This is because many digital transformation programmes succeed on paper and fail where it matters most: on the frontline. This failure is often not because the intent of the investment or transformation aspirations are completely wrong. It is because the tools introduced to these teams do not match up to the environments that utilities actually operate in. Chris Potts, pictured, Marketing Director, ANT Telecom says improving frontline mobility, safety and collaboration is essential if future investments are to succeed.
Utility engineers, technicians and contractors often operate across vast estates, remote locations and hazardous environments. Many also operate alone and frequently under time pressure. In addition to this, site rules vary, risk profiles change, and work is carried out across a mixture of environments. This includes confined and safety-critical environments.
Yet many digital initiatives still assume consistent access to systems and simple workflows is straight forward for these kinds of staff members to access and use. It actually is not the case, and in reality, frontline teams are often expected to navigate many fragmented platforms, paper-based processes and multiple standalone devices while delivering safer working, faster response times and improved customer outcomes.
Eventually, this can result in people bypassing processes because they have not been well-designed for frontline teams. So, digital transformation does not stall because of a lack of ambition. It stalls because systems become harder to follow than the risks they are designed to manage. So they need to be developed and streamlined for staff using them in the field on a daily basis.
Investment is accelerating — delivery risk high
The scale of infrastructure investment now planned across utilities is significant. In the energy sector, the National Preparedness Commission has warned that ageing assets and increased demand are placing the UK’s system under strain unless resilience improves. In response, Ofgem has announced £28 billion of investment across gas and electricity networks, a figure expected to rise to around £90 billion by 2031.
The water sector faces similar scrutiny. Ofwat’s 2024–25 performance report highlights ongoing challenges, with pollution referenced as a major problem. Consequently, this has resulted in the approval of £104bn upgrade; to accelerate delivery of cleaner rivers and seas and secure long-term drinking water supplies for customers.
The success or failure of these investments, though, will not be found during the various procurement cycles and strategy documents that have been designed to deliver them. Instead, success or failure depends on the capabilities of frontline teams operating in complicated, high-risk environments to execute their daily work effectively, safely and efficiently.
Why mobility strategy is now a safety decision
Broadly speaking, regulators increasingly highlight digitisation as a way to improve productivity, compliance and service delivery. However, digitisation only works when it functions correctly in the field. Therefore developing and executing a mobility strategy is no longer an IT consideration for the sector, it is an operational risk decision.
For instance, when mobile solutions fail to reflect the real working conditions of staff — including lone working, hazardous tasks and the need for rapid escalation — they create issues rather than improving efficiency. Workarounds emerge, processes are bypassed and visibility is lost precisely where it is most needed. And, in high-risk environments, complexity is not neutral. It actively increases risk.
Smartphones are already the front line workhorse
For many utility organisations there is a perception that smartphones represent the future of frontline working. In reality, smartphones are already present in the present. They are carried by default by staff, who often bring their own devices to work, and so many people are familiar with how smartphones operate. In addition to this, many smartphones can run multiple applications; that evolve through software updates, rather than repeated hardware refresh cycles. So, when staff are provided smartphones, they are already familiar with using them.
Despite this familiarity, many utilities continue to rely on a combination of tablets, dedicated lone worker devices, standalone gas detectors and traditional, dated paper-based processes. This increases the number of devices and processes that workers must carry and manage, making consistent adoption of various devices harder instead of easier. However, smartphones, when deployed as part of a considered mobility strategy, offer an opportunity to consolidate rather than add to the device burden.
So, communication, lone worker protection, job management and reporting can all be delivered through a single platform and single device, provided the right safety and governance controls are in place.
ATEX environments demand flexibility, not blanket approaches
Hazardous environments add another layer of complexity and the utility sector has no shortage of these. ATEX-rated devices are essential in certain situations like this, but a one-size-fits-all approach to their deployment and usage is rarely effective. Additionally, ATEX tablets are often used here. And, while powerful, are expensive and often cumbersome for everyday tasks, typically costing between £2,300 and £3,200 per unit. In comparison, ATEX smartphones offer a sufficient screen size and functionality for most required field activities today at around half the cost, while supporting safer, more practical ways of working too.
More importantly, not every worker requires the same equipment either. Some lone workers need ATEX smartphones alongside gas detection. Others require lone worker protection without gas monitoring. Many operate in non-ATEX environments; but they still need safety oversight. Further, contractors and infrequent visitors typically require controlled, temporary access rather than permanent device allocation.
Therefore, flexibility, rather than standardisation, is what enables mobility strategies to scale across diverse estates. This is because there is no one-size-fits all approach towards delivering mobility effectively.
Safety systems only work if people actually use them
Utilities rightly place strong emphasis on lone worker safety. However, standalone lone worker devices are often underused for a simple reason: people already carry too much equipment. A safety system that relies on an additional device is vulnerable to being forgotten, left in a vehicle or left in a locker.
Embedding lone worker protection into devices that workers already rely on changes behaviour though. Smartphones used for communication, collaboration and job management are far more likely to be carried consistently and remain active throughout a shift. So making use of these devices to support safety is key.
Fewer systems, clearer accountability
The most effective mobility strategies are not those that deploy more technology, but those that simplify how technology is used. Consolidating communication, lone worker protection, alarm management and safety data into a single, coherent platform reduces reliance on memory, paperwork and manual handovers.
It also delivers something increasingly important: clear accountability. Knowing who is on site, who is responding to an incident and what action has been taken is essential in environments where risk is dynamic and response time matters.
Conclusion
Utilities are entering a decade of unprecedented delivery. Infrastructure investment is necessary, but it is not sufficient. The organisations that succeed will be those that design digital strategies around how work is actually done, not how it is assumed to be done.
Smartphones, deployed intelligently within a wider mobility and safety strategy, provide a pragmatic way to bridge that gap. When integrated with existing gas detection systems and lone worker platforms, they enable alarms, exposure data and incidents to be managed centrally while remaining accessible to those closest to the risk. At the same time, smartphones give frontline workers access to collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, as well as emerging AI-driven support that can help them interpret information, access guidance and make better decisions.
