Patchy mobile broadband coverage is causing UK retailers to miss out on at least £1.3 billion in sales, according to eBay.

The online auction site has called on Ofcom, the telecoms industry watchdog, to give a boost to mobile commerce (m-commerce) services in order to support the country's economy.

Consumers frustrated at being unable to access mobile broadband in their home must be taken into consideration when new rules on the rollout of 4G networks are discussed later this year, eBay argued.

If sufficient improvements are made, the platform could contribute an additional £4.5 billion to the country's coffers by 2016 and a further £13 billion by 2021.

Research from the company found 16 per cent of the UK is currently a so-called 'm-commerce not-spot', with levels of spending via mobile devices at least 20 per cent less than the national average.

The worst-affected places are rural English counties, remote parts of Wales and Scotland's highlands and islands.

But mobile broadband reliability and coverage was also shown to affect urban locations, with central London cited as one of the inner-city areas that are lagging in terms of m-commerce take-up.

This matches a recent study from Ofcom that claimed there is "no guarantee of good performance offered in a city centre location".

Slow speeds, consistency of the connection and the cost of data were named by consumers as the three biggest barriers to mobile shopping, while signal strength also put off many respondents to eBay's survey.

More than a fifth said regulators and networks should make improving rural coverage their top priority, compared to 14 per cent that think they should focus on urban areas.

Angus McCarey, retail director for eBay UK, said: "High-quality and reliable mobile broadband coverage throughout the UK has to be our ambition, giving consumers choice over when and how they shop, encouraging spending, thereby benefitting online and high street retail, and giving a much-needed boost to the fragile economic recovery."

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