The UK Government wants 95% of the country connected to super-fast broadband by 2017, but as demonstrated by the House of Commons debate on 12th October, many areas of the country continue to have issues receiving a reliable, and fast, internet connection. “Hon. Members reading the Order Paper could be forgiven for thinking that this debate is about the roll-out of superfast broadband across the...

Forrester predicts that 44% of in-store sales will have been influenced by the internet by 2018. As we explored in our previous post, the impact of the internet doesn’t just lie in online retail, but in the ways that physical retailers can augment their in-store services using features that depend on a reliable, fast internet connection. In 2014, the Digital High Street Board recommended the...

High-speed broadband connectivity may not seem like a vital matter for high street retailers to consider, but those that have excellent connectivity, and who use it well, reap the benefits of using it. In fact, one survey shows that 80% of shoppers cite the ability of free Wi-Fi as influencing where they shop. Retailers that provide free in-store Wi-Fi are considering their customer’s experience....

Back in February 2015 the House of Lords committee on digital skills reported that London had one of the lowest average internet connectivity speeds in Europe; having fallen behind cities like Bucharest and Reykjavik. The chair, Baroness Morgan, said: “It's unacceptable that some urban areas still experience 'not-spots', particularly where the lack of internet directly affects the UK’s ability to...

As copper lines are being replaced by other ways to connect to the internet – such as super-fast broadband, 4G mobile and satellite broadband services – VoIP is becoming more popular. When using VoIP, calls are transmitted via the internet, rather than the traditional copper based landlines and telephone exchanges. Using VoIP, people can download apps to their smartphones and computers, enabling...

A few years ago, most offices made extensive use of local area networks (LANs). For example, accounting software could be installed on one computer, and used on several others that were connected to the same LAN. Now, that same office has the option of using online accounting software, which stores its financial data in the cloud. These days, there are business services apps and websites that...

Net neutrality has been a hot topic over the past year, with both American and European authorities making rulings and amending existing regulations to fit the expanded digital world. The debate centres on the idea that ISPs should give users equal access to content, regardless of how they are charged and the source of the content. United States? A recent study found that several major US...

The net neutrality debate in the EU Parliament is heating up, with discussion of the need to allow some internet “fast lanes”, specifically for services such as internet TV and “ specialised services” (which may relate to Internet of Things developments, such as connected cars). These new exemptions to the stringent regulations proposed in 2014 are being opposed by net neutrality campaigners and...

When Trend Micro and Vanson Bourne asked IT decision makers if their businesses were ready for wearables in the workplace, 61 per cent said that their employers already encouraged their employees to wear devices. Sixty per cent confirmed that they had implemented or planned to introduce, wearable devices in the near future. Wearable technology can vary from smartwatches (like the Apple watch) to...

The rise of wearable technology, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing feeds into the Big Data revolution. There’s no way to avoid it, there’s a considerable amount of data out there about all of us. But businesses don’t have to use it. Various studies have shown that Big Data is popular; especially with the financial sector (which raconteur found had the highest adoption rates). Studies by...