SkillsBase took part in Connected Britain 2026 at ExCeL London, bringing its field technology portfolio to Stand K13. The exhibition provided a setting to introduce the tools and discuss their intended role in telecoms operations.
Connected Britain is one of the UK’s leading events for the telecoms and digital infrastructure sector, bringing together operators, contractors, suppliers and policymakers. For SkillsBase, it is an opportunity to meet the people responsible for building and maintaining networks and to hear about the challenges they face.
Three products, one focus
Our exhibition preview featured Forge, the Copper Cable ID Tool developed with Openreach and Kanoptic. Together, the products show the range of questions SkillsBase is working on, from applying computer vision to inspection through to copper identification and fibre field repairs.
- Forge is our no-code platform for building and deploying custom computer-vision inspection models, including on-device use where connectivity is limited.
- The Cable ID tool is designed to help engineers identify the correct copper cable before recovery work proceeds, with an app-led confidence indication to support their decision.
- Kanoptic is the home of the Splice Fault Detector, which helps engineers check splice quality in the field and record the result.
The products address different parts of field work, but each is built around the same principle: giving engineers clearer information at the point where they make decisions about their work.
An award-winning week
The week also included the AI Innovation Award win for Forge. That recognition was a highlight for the team and an opportunity to explain the platform’s background and its focus on practical inspection workflows. SkillsBase had entered the event with three award nominations across product and leadership categories.
The programme also included a panel on responsible AI, “Guardrails for Growth”, which brought together perspectives from across the sector on how AI can be adopted responsibly and how organisations can keep people at the centre of decisions.
Conversations that start with the task
The value of an industry exhibition also lies in the chance to put a working task at the centre of a conversation. A demonstration gives visitors a way to ask about the process, the information a tool provides and the conditions that should be considered in an evaluation. Those are useful starting points for a more detailed discussion after the event.
That is the approach we take with every demonstration: start with the task, not the technology. Whether the question is about a recurring installation fault, the risk of cutting the wrong cable or the quality of a fibre splice, the most productive conversations begin with a clear description of the problem the team is trying to solve.
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who visited the SkillsBase stand and to those who supported the team during the exhibition. If you would like to explore one of the products in more detail, contact SkillsBase with the task your team is trying to solve so we can discuss a relevant demonstration.
We also thank Total Telecom and the Connected Britain team for organising the event, and we look forward to continuing the conversations that began at ExCeL London in the weeks and months ahead.