The government expects the “imminent” resolution of a big difficulty on the road to ensuring all UK homes have broadband access by 2012, following a meeting on Tuesday between Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, and the five mobile phone network operators.

A person familiar with the meeting said they were now close to agreeing a final allocation of the radiowave spectrum. Arguments over this have threatened to derail proposals for universal broadband access, one of the main planks of the government’s digital economy bill, which is due to be included in November’s Queen’s Speech.