[IP] Broadband reaches Fair Isle
------ Forwarded Message
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2005 18:43:33 +0100
To: <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Broadband reaches Fair Isle
Hi Dave:
In view of recent breast-beating about US broadband provisions
lagging behind those of a number of other counties, I could not
resist drawing your attention to an article in yesterday's (UK)
Guardian newspaper about broadband reaching the tiny remote Fair
Isle, way to the North of Scotland.
Cheers
Brian
>Remote access: high speed internet link brings Fair Isle into the 21st century
>
>Isolated island embraces broadband alongside the crofts, sheep and sweaters
>
>Gerard Seenan
>Saturday April 16, 2005
>The Guardian
>
>Beside the knitwear and the late night, honey-tone mention on the
>shipping forecast, there is little to draw attention to Fair Isle.
>Revelling in the title of the remotest inhabited island in Britain,
>it is a difficult place to get to, and, in the long, blustering
>winter months, even more difficult to get off.
>
>A tiny fleck of cliff and moor jutting from the sea between Orkney
>and Shetland, Fair Isle looks, on paper, about as far removed from
>modern Britain as it is possible to get. But the islanders do not
>think of themselves as isolated.
>...
>As BT announces that 5 million people in the UK now have a broadband
>connection, it is not just cities and towns that are being changed
>for ever by high speed connections. Late last summer, a broadband
>connection by satellite link was established on Fair Isle. There is
>no telecommunication cable to Fair Isle and the link sounded the
>death knell for the microwave connection, which can support only a
>few calls at a time, between the island and the mainland. In the
>months that have followed, almost half of the 20 homes on the island
>have signed up.
>
>Fair Isle, miles from anywhere, cut off for weeks in the winter
>months, is the very edge of Broadband Britain.
>...
>Mr Wheeler - weather forecaster, coastguard, airport manager,
>website designer, photographer, electricity company director -
>arrived on Fair Isle more than 30 years ago. Then he used to make
>around 80% of his living from crofting, 20% from outside work. Now
>that ratio has inverted. On the mainland, that would seem a change
>hardly worthy of note. On an island as isolated as Fair Isle, it is
>remarkable.
>
>To get to the island you must first fly to Shetland, stay overnight
>and rise early for the tiny Islander plane or, for those with strong
>stomachs, the ferry. The plane leaves Tingwall airport, a couple of
>small buildings a few miles from the main Shetland town of Lerwick,
>with its seven passengers on board. One sits up front with the
>pilot, seat belt on, like a passenger in a private-hire taxi.
>
>For 10 airborne minutes, there is nothing to see but deep blue
>punctuated by the spittle fleck of waves. Then Fair Isle appears on
>the horizon. An island of about 3 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, it
>stands alone in the sea; lighthouses at each end mark its danger to
>unwary seamen. The plane lands on the small, unsealed airstrip.
...
Full story at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1461186,00.html
--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxx PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/
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