In 2019 the Indian government declared access to the internet a ‘basic human right’ and this week 14,000 of its poorest citizens are being given free high-speed broadband.

Meanwhile thousands of miles away in parts of Kent you’ll still struggle for decent phone signal.

The new service in the state of Kerala has aspirations to connect 35 million citizens – and crucially - more than two million of its poorest residents.

Cutting the digital divide, it says, is a necessity in 2023 with plans to combine the roll-out with digital literacy campaigns to ensure no man, woman or child is left behind as even the state’s remotest areas move into an age of high connectivity.

You don’t even need to be somewhere remote to find your phone signal drops out in Kent.

Canterbury high street is one such blackspot – leaving everyone from traders to tourists struggling to negotiate it’s popular cobbled streets without so much as a sniff of 4G in places. Many rural areas in the county remain consigned to the same fate.

My mobile network provider has spent a week stalking me with messages telling me I’m dangerously close to my data allowance and how I can buy back more.

I’m blaming this firmly on a spell of sports tournaments with the kids where fixtures, results and tables were accessible for participants only via apps and – in the absence of any public wifi - this has torn my pre-paid gigs to shreds.

We’ve all been in leisure centres, coffee shops or attractions where posters promoting guest wifi appears to be only available to perhaps one guest at a time - and don’t get me started on hotels which slap an extra £3/£4 a night on your bill for a peek at their broadband password.

An Ofcom report in 2021 suggested that more than 1.5 million homes in the UK still had zero internet access – while 20% of children couldn’t tap into online learning as a result.

Covid-19 school closures showed us how critical a connection was and yet here we are still struggling to dial in from so many places.

In Uruguay every state school primary pupil is given a free laptop when they start which is connected via a specific broadband platform for students.

At one of my children’s schools you can’t contact staff, report absences, pay for dinners or accept school trip invitations with a parent app – and yet the school grounds have zero signal should you be that parent who forgets until they hit the gates.

Five years ago the Labour Party promised to provide free broadband to every British household by 2030 if it were to win the 2019 election. It was a policy many perceived to be trivial at the time – and yet living a decent life without the internet is fast becoming impossible.

Back in India 35,000km of fibre optic cables are reportedly about to propel ‘Kerala’s internet revolution to unprecedented heights’.

Whether it’s free broadband or better phone signal – or both - the UK would benefit from some propelling too.