"The really tricky parts of the country don't get decent ADSL OR 3G"
Ha! Forget "tricky", huge chunks supposed civilised East Anglia don't get 3G! I work within spitting distance of Cambridge, where is it supposed to be "silicon fen", and can only get 3G if the wind is in the right direction (no, seriously) and get no 3G reception at all three miles up the road where I live. Its not like its a hard to access area which is the excuse for some counties, with major N/S and E/W trunk roads on my doorstep (A1, A14, M11) I would have thought infrastructure would have follow them to a certain extent. (Bonus question: name two counties with no motorways at all. Clue: one of them was in the article). As I travel around the country seeing family members, it doesn't seem to get much better either. As far as I can see, unless you live in a large town you're screwed.
It makes the data bundle on my mobile tariff a bad joke; 250MB really isn't a lot but there's no way I can use that much in a month via 2G.