The battle for better broadband access across the UK

For Sajid Javid, the pragmatic former banker turned UK culture secretary, improving the UK’s much criticised broadband and mobile networks is his most important goal ahead of the next general election.

But the government’s focus on pushing operators to improve mobile services in rural areas of the UK, in particular, faces mounting industry opposition, even as work progresses on other parts of a digital strategy that hopes to create national networks that will rival any in Europe. The Department for Culture, Media & Sport faces a potential quagmire of objections about plans to bridge gaps in mobile coverage using “national roaming”, whereby a customer of any operator would be able to use the network of another.