[April 08, 2013] Parishioners at St John's find there's something holy in The Cloud Tweet Apr 08, 2013 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Today, St John's Church in Mickleover, near Derby, held the UK's first WiFi church service, thanks to WiFi provider The Cloud. The trial service, which was delivered to tablet computers, has been created in response to an increasing number of the congregation who are visually impaired and find it difficult to read the small text in hymn books and Bibles. St John's installed The Cloud's WiFi originally for its internet cafe, but this is the first time the technology will have been used to run a full church service. A couple of members of the congregation have used their own devices during Sunday service before, and now thanks to a donation of tablets from The Cloud even more will be able to join in electronically. Connected by simple desktop sharing software, the tablets will follow the service on the main screen in real time, allowing users to enlarge the font for everything from hymns to chapters of the Bible. Revd. Alun Rowlands, Curate at St John's, commented: "The church leadership team is really keen to make our services as accessible as possible. At the same time we are keen to use audio visual technologies as much as possible by projecting our liturgy and songs on to large screens. The two aims seemed to be in tension until we had WiFi installed and began experimenting with using The Cloud to replicate the exact content onto individual tablets for those with visual impairment of differing kinds. We are delighted with the progress so far and look forward to see how we can develop things further." Vince Russell, managing director of The Cloud, said: "It's great to see forward-thinking institutions like St John's experimenting with WiFi to see how it can make their services more accessible. First we saw the Pope tweeting and now this service via WiFi at St John's - perhaps the church can teach others a few things about keeping up with modern technology." While St John's is the first church to experiment with running its services via WiFi, it's just one of many venues to appreciate the benefits of this technology. With the rise of wireless-enabled smartphones, tablets and other devices, more than 10 million Britons a week are logging on to public WiFi while out and about, new research reveals.1 The figures from The Cloud, the biggest high street WiFi provider in the UK, show that almost a quarter of the nation (22%) uses WiFi in shops, cafes, restaurants, pubs and other public venues every week - with an avid 2.8 million (6%) users logging on every day, the equivalent of one in 10 smartphone owners.2 With an estimated 28 million Britons now owning smartphones, and 7.3 million tablets,3 the research also reveals the extent to which wireless internet usage out and about is no longer the preserve of young people. A fifth of 45-54-year-olds (19%) use public WiFi at least once a week, as do 10% of people aged 55 or older. According to The Cloud's own data, there were more than two billion minutes spent online using public WiFi in the first 10 weeks of 2013 alone, with more than 800 million megabytes of information downloaded in total. There are 200 new venues added to The Cloud's network every week. Its hotspots are in major high street venues and public places, such as Greggs, Caffe Nero, PizzaExpress, Wetherspoon pubs, Eat, Pret A Manger, Wagamama, WH Smith, the City of London, and Network Rail and London Overground stations. Notes to editor Research conducted by Canadean consumer in November 2012, based on a representative sample of 2,000 UK adults. 1. There 48,844,900 UK adults (ONS). 2. comScore estimates there are 28 million smartphone users in the UK: http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2012/07/google-goes-for-gold-in-uk-smartphone-race/ 3. According to a report from YouGov, commissioned by Deloitte, 15% of the UK now has access to a tablet. For interviews/comment please contact: The Cloud Hugo Deacon Harvard PR 020 7861 2842 07795 540 717 [email protected] About The Cloud - The Cloud (www.thecloud.net) builds and operates Wi-Fi networks across the UK and Europe to provide the mobile media experience that consumers want. The service delivers simple, fast and cost effective broadband to millions of Wi-Fi enabled smartphones, laptops and entertainment devices. The Cloud has exclusive commercial partnerships with retail, leisure, hotels, sports, transport, and entertainment and content partners to deliver its longer-term vision of a connected society. - The Cloud has over 7 million registered users connecting for over 200 million minutes a week in over 16,000 live locations such as the Emirates Stadium, Silverstone Race Track, the City of London, Wetherspoon, PizzaExpress, Caffe Nero, Eat, pubs, leisure facilities, restaurants and mainline stations. - Approximately 8 million people pass through The Cloud network everyday by visiting one of its partners, including major outlets such as PizzaExpress, Greggs, Pret and Wagamama, as well as First Great Western and Network Rail stations. - The Cloud is a BSkyB Company. ((M2 Communications disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.com on the world wide web. 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