I HAVE a dream. That one day I will be able to access the internet at high speed, anywhere — and it’s a dream that is quickly moving closer to reality.

4G is already available in some places, and it’s going to be expanding rapidly. I’m almost trembling with excitement at the prospect of being able to watch Antiques Roadshow on BBC iPlayer while halfway up Scafell Pike.* The catch at the moment is that, six months into 4G availability, coverage is still pretty patchy and prices are a bit off-putting. 4G (fourth generation) is available in most of Bury, but not in parts of Ramsbottom or between Radcliffe and Kearsley, according to the website of EE, the only network in the UK that currently provides 4G coverage.

And a 12-month contract with EE starts at £41 per month for a measly 500MB allowance. A more meaty 8GB plan costs £66 per month. Undoubtedly these prices will drop when the other networks launch and the technology improves, but it could still be a way off before it becomes more affordable.

The answer could lie in public wi-fi. Lots of shops, pubs and other places now have wi-fi and there are various services such as BT’s Openzone and Sky’s Cloud that seem to be creeping into every urban corner.

With 4G only available in big towns and cities at the moment, it’s possible that public wi-fi could sneak up on the networks and take them unawares, especially when it is cheap or free. Hopefully this will lead to reduced 4G prices.

If public wi-fi does become the choice of the mobile surfer, then tuning in to Fiona Bruce in the wilds could be a way off, but, quite frankly, I will survive.

Prime Minister David Cameron waded into the world of wireless technology by saying that he wanted “good, clean wi-fi”, by which he means, of course, state censorship of internet access by banning people from accessing porn on public wi-fi networks.

The argument is that children are using public wi-fi to escape the parent-controlled confines of home networks.

Noble though this idea arguably is, it is clearly never going to work. Any youngster who has thought enough about this to work out how to use public wi-fi for nefarious ends will easily be able to find a way around such an obstacle.

*I do not actually want to watch the Antiques Road show, least of all in the wilderness.