The Channel Island of Jersey is perhaps better known for its cows than its telecoms networks. Yet its 100,000 population benefit from the second-fastest mobile download speeds in the world, trailing only Singapore. And now it is enhancing its reputation as a technology hub with plans to launch a 5G network by 2021, years ahead of any roll out in the rest of the UK.

By embracing 5G Jersey has turned itself into a test bed for what is being hailed as the connectivity technology needed to power the “internet of things”, where everything from autonomous cars to factory lines to cows in the field, with sensors embedded inside them, will be connected to a 5G network. Established participants like Japan’s Sony are already testing new network technology on the Channel Island, as are start-ups, including fintech companies and weather data businesses.

For Europe’s biggest telecoms companies 5G offers something else — the tantalising prospect that it could transform their fortunes by reversing their dire stock market performance after a damaging decade-long price war over mobile data during the 4G era.