Guest Author

U.K. Businesses ‘Sluggish’ to Embrace Cloud

By Matthew Broersma KPMG has found that U.K. businesses are still reluctant to sign up for cloud services, preferring to stick with familiar outsourcing methods. Cloud services are failing to catch on with U.K. businesses, in part because of concerns around security and privacy, according to a new study from professional services company KPMG. The […]

Welsh Government Offers £3M to Boost Business Broadband

By Steve McCaskill The Welsh government is inviting communications firms to bid for between £1m and £3m worth of contracts to provide superfast broadband to areas not covered by the Superfast Cymru partnership with BT. Superfast Cymru intends to connect 96 percent of the Welsh population, or 690,000 premises, with fiber by 2016 and is […]

Treat Broadband Like a Utility, Says House of Lords

By Steve McCaskill Broadband should be treated like a utility, such as electricity or water, a House of Lords committee has recommended, arguing that the continued presence of “not-spots” is “unacceptable.” The committee’s report, entitled Make or Break: The UK‘s Digital Future, says some sections of society and regions of the United Kingdom are at […]

WiFi Helps Scandinavian Airlines Save on Roaming and Fuel

By Steve McCaskill Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) says the use of iPass’ global network of WiFi hotspots has made its staff more productive and has helped to reduce its roaming bill. The airline currently serves 120 destinations around the world and operates 791 flights a day, meaning much of its workforce is spread out across far-flung […]

Vodafone 4G Reaches 2.2m Users and 57 Percent Coverage

By Steve McCaskill Vodafone’s 4G network now has 2.2 million users and covers 57 percent of the U.K. ahead of the operator’s planned push into consumer fixed line and television services, according to the Newbury-based firm’s third-quarter results. U.K. revenue increased by 0.9 percent to £1.53 billion during the third quarter of 2014 as the […]

Scottish, Norwegian Data Centers Linked by Fast North Sea Fiber

By Ben Sullivan Data centers that link the oil hotspots of Stavanger, Norway, and Aberdeen, Scotland, will now use a new high speed fiber-optic Internet connection to work with each other. The move comes from the partnership between Aberdeen’s Internet For Business (IFB) and Norway’s Green Mountain, along with network provider Tampnet providing the fiber […]

HyperCatCity Looks To Launch U.K.’s First ‘Smart Cities’

By Michael Moore Britain’s first truly “smart cities” could be just a few years away thanks to the launch of a new initiative that looks to push collaboration between the public and private sector. Backed by the Government’s Innovate U.K. program, the HyperCatCity initiative looks to use the open and interoperable HyperCat IoT standard to […]

Dell, Intel, Cambridge University Team Up for HPC Research

By Duncan Macrae Dell and the University of Cambridge (UoC) have taken their high-performance computing research to another level at their European HPC Solution Centre. In collaboration with Intel, the Dell/Cambridge HPC Solution Centre aims to provide answers to challenges facing the HPC community and feed the results back into the wider research community. The […]

Dropbox London Office Courts Customers and Developers

By Steve McCaskill Dropbox says opening an office in London will allow it to better serve its customers in the U.K. and tap into the development community located in the capital. Former Google executive Mark van der Linden will head up the U.K. team, which the company says is “small”, but capable of tapping into […]

Cancer Research UK Launches Contactless Donation Scheme

By Michael Moore Cancer Research UK has opened up a new dimension to its fundraising, thanks to a new initiative that allows the public to pledge through its shop windows. The charity has teamed up with advertising giant Clear Channel to launch the world’s first use of “contactless giving” technology, where customers give money using […]