“Two years is a long time when you’ve got operators who are saying that they can’t meet their cost of capital and that they’re in trouble and need to do something otherwise they’re going to exit the market and consumers suffer,”.

However, he adds that the companies “probably benefited from the delay because of the fact we got a new government that was focused on investment and growth and a realisation from the CMA that coverage isn’t where it should be”.

Most crucial is the prospect of an improvement to the UK’s shoddy mobile coverage, which has been a key priority of the Labour Government under telecoms minister Chris Bryant, as well as regulator Ofcom.

“Clearly the UK’s coverage position is not where it should be relative to other countries,” says Howett.