Eurobites: UK Broadband Only Half as Fast as It Should Be, Finds Study

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: EU calls for co-operation on cyberdefense; Cambridge Analytica files for bankruptcy; nun news.

UK broadband service providers have received another telling-off from Which?, the influential consumer rights organization. Results generated by 235,000 uses of its speed-checker tool showed that, on average, broadband customers are paying for download speeds of up to 38 Mbit/s, but are only receiving half that. The results come just ahead of new advertising regulations that are implemented next week and will forbid providers from advertising "up to" speeds which in practice are only available to around 10% of subscribers. The results also showed that the faster the advertised speed, the further it was from the actual speed recorded by the speed-checker tool: Consumers paying for a package offering "up to 200 Mbit/s" were on average only able to get speeds of 52 Mbit/s -- 26% of the promised speed.

Members of the European Parliament have called for greater co-operation between the EU member states and NATO on cyberdefense, calling the current approach "fragmented." According to report in The Parliament Magazine, the MEPs also called on member states to invest more in cyberdefense to help address the skills shortage in this area.

Cambridge Analytica, the company that caused a media firestorm by collecting the data of millions of Facebook users for dubious purposes, has filed for voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy in New York, Reuters reports.

When it comes to social media, even nuns can fall into bad habits, it seems. As the Guardian reports, the Vatican has issued a document advising nuns not to spend too much time catching up on Facebook and the like, and to only do so with "discretion and sobriety." Anyone would think a life of quiet contemplation doesn't sit well with hours spent watching cats doing the funniest things. Chillax, papal dudes!

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading