Speaking on the sidelines of Thruxton's motor circuit in Hampshire on a soggy September afternoon, Max Taylor felt inspired.
"The UK needs to go faster," the VodafoneThree boss said as he unveiled a new premium 5G service. "It's what customers want, it's what they're asking us for – but it's also what they're going to need in the future."
Vodafone's new and improved 5G service will be a boon for Britons who have long struggled with scratchy calls and buffering videos.
This is just one frontier in a new era for the internet.
Alongside rivals Virgin Media O2 and BT-owned EE , Vodafone is calling for a watering down of crucial laws to help unleash faster 5G signals.
These reforms could open up a raft of new opportunities, the companies argue, from easing network congestion at concerts and sports events to allowing customers to prioritise urgent calls or online activities.
For consumers, however, access to these 5G fast lanes will probably come at a cost.
Slow and patchy mobile coverage is a reality of everyday life in Britain, which has download speeds so poor that they rank below countries including Kazakhstan and Cambodia.
Industry bosses and analysts point to a number of causes, including cumbersome planning laws and razor-thin margins that have stifled investment by network operators.
As 5G upgrades provide ever greater network capacity, there are now glimpses of improvement.
SuperMobile, Vodafone's premium service, promises speeds up to four times faster than regular 5G.
EE has also launched its own fast-lane service, which offers speedier connections at crowded locations such as Wembley Stadium.
These innovations take advantage of 5G technology known as "slicing", which allows different parts of a mobile network to be used for different purposes.
The changes come after Ofcom in 2023 revised its rules on net neutrality to clarify that mobile and broadband operators can offer premium services.
It was a modest revision of a decades-old principle dictating that all internet traffic and data must be treated equally.
Tearing through restrictions
Now, mobile network operators want to go further and tear up restrictions that prevent individual apps and services from being prioritised.
This could mean, for example, that a reveller trying to hail an Uber when leaving a busy venue would be prioritised over someone uploading videos of their night out to Instagram.
Equally, someone trying to connect to an electric-car charger in a multi-storey car park could be fast-tracked, while users could choose to prioritise an important video call over other activities.
For businesses, too, there are benefits. For example, a food stall operator could secure priority to process card payments or a ticketing company could secure extra bandwidth before an expected rush of sales.
BT, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone are all lobbying ministers to allow these changes as part of the ongoing mobile market review.
"Outdated net neutrality rules mean that customers aren't realising the full benefits of our investment," says Jeanie York, VVMO2's chief technology officer.
"Reforming these rules should be a priority for the Government, enabling operators to be more efficient in managing traffic and to use the full capabilities of the latest technology."
A BT spokesman said: "The Mobile Market Review is an opportunity to modernise the regulatory and policy framework governing mobile networks, which was developed for a very different era of the internet almost 20 years ago.
"A more flexible approach to network management and innovation would help deliver better connectivity, support new technologies and encourage continued investment in world-class infrastructure for the UK."
The industry argues that reform is all the more pressing as expanding AI use floods the internet with reams of additional data. After all, no one wants their connection to be slowed down by an army of AI agents and bots trawling the web.
Donald Trump has already torn up net neutrality rules in the US, providing a potential template for similar moves in the UK. Australia, Germany and Japan are among other countries that have taken a more permissive approach to the regulations.
Yet any attempt to water down net neutrality would prove controversial, not least in Silicon Valley.
Telecoms companies have been locked in a years-long tussle with tech giants over who should shoulder the network costs of data-heavy services such as Netflix and YouTube.
As it stands, network operators are blocked from charging these companies extra. But removing net neutrality requirements would open the door to extra fees – something the tech giants unsurprisingly resist.
Telecoms bosses deny that they want to inflict punitive fees on tech giants, insisting that any reform would instead be aimed at enabling optional premium services.
For many campaigners, however, net neutrality is a principle that goes well beyond any individual company and is instead a core tenet of the open web.
'Commercial gatekeepers'
Critics warn that any move to discriminate between different types of data risks creating a "two-tier" internet where network operators control who sees what. This, they argue, could ultimately have implications for freedom of expression.
"Scrapping or relaxing these rules risks turning internet service providers into commercial gatekeepers," says Alex Tofts, at Broadband Genie, a comparison site.
"Wealthy tech giants and enterprise clients could buy priority lanes, leaving everyday users and smaller independent businesses relegated to the digital slow lane."
Perhaps most concerningly for consumers, these upgrades will come at a cost. Vodafone SuperMobile will cost contract customers an extra £3 a month, while EE's upgraded service will be an extra £5.
In some ways, this seems reasonable. Most customers would accept the principle of paying a little bit more for a premium service, especially given UK mobile and broadband bills are significantly cheaper than in other countries such as the US.
"I think if we want better quality networks in more places, then there has to be a conversation about consumers needing to pay more," says Matthew Howett, at Assembly Research.
"We've seen the effect of low prices in the lived experience of coverage for many people today."
Howett draws a comparison with airline customers willing to fork out for a business class ticket. "At the moment, mobile operators are only allowing you to choose a higher baggage allowance," he adds.
Yet some fear these new upgrades are the top of a slippery slope whereby consumers would be forced to shell out ever more to access the best service – or risk being left in the slow lane.
Mobile bosses insist that the reforms are about unlocking additional services for those willing to pay more, rather than charging extra to solve existing coverage problems. They argue that operators continue to invest in their networks to improve the service for all users.
Indeed, any extra revenue could be invested into the network to improve coverage for everyone, or even into cheaper tariffs for those who just want a basic service.
As mobile providers race to improve returns in a cut-throat market, however, some fear it is the customers who'll end up footing the bill.
"Far more likely [is that] everyday customers may see their speeds throttled, effectively forcing them to upgrade to a more expensive tariff just to maintain the connection quality they previously enjoyed," says Tofts.
