Infuriatingly, I can get reception in some parts of my house and not in others and while I have tried most of the major phone companies, they all seem as bad as each other.

I mention this because a recent Criteo report showed that smartphone travel bookings in the US have now hit 40% – up 20% on last year, with bookings through laptops and desktops standing at just 12%.

The report also showed that in the UK, 93% of adults own a smartphone, and mobile devices were used by 30% of some age groups to book their holiday over the past year.

This begs the question, what would the figure be if those who lived in the country had decent reception, so bookings could be made while on the go or in a place without Wi-Fi connection?

In December last year, the National Infrastructure Commission published a report into telecommunication technology.

The NIC is chaired by my old friend Andrew (Lord) Adonis, who was quoted as saying the UK is falling behind other countries in this regard, with better network services available in Romania, Albania, Panama and Peru.

Mobile phone operators have agreed to cover 90% of the UK’s land area by the end of next year in order to stave off the threat of having to share their networks. However, Lord Adonis warns that this could still leave many customers unable to access basic services.

The NIC wants the government to introduce a universal service obligation. This would be similar to that imposed on landline providers and the postal service.

Adonis says, and I agree: “We need a new universal service obligation which ensures that the mobile essentials like text, talk and data, are available to us wherever we need them.”

The NIC Report was commissioned by the former chancellor, George Osborne, to set out the steps the UK needs to take in order to keep up with competitors such as South Korea business-wise, which is expected to be the first to introduce a 5G network.

Osborne will be the keynote speaker at the ITT Conference in Sorrento in June and I think it will be fascinating to hear what he thinks about the report.

Britain is currently ranked 54th in the world for 4G coverage and the typical user (me) can access 4G only about half of the time.

There are too many digital deserts and partial not-spots, which isn’t just frustrating for individuals, but is increasingly holding businesses back, particularly with regard to catering for those based in the countryside.

Steven Freudmann is chairman of the Institute of Travel & Tourism