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Norway to Wire North Pole

Posted by michael on from the tv's-on-the-fritz-again dept.

TomMajor writes "Norway will lay an underwater fiber-optic cable from the mainland to Svalbard and turn remote Longyearbyen into the world's best connected village, providing residents with 100 TV stations and a full VDSL (very high bit-rate DSL) network..."

8 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Come one come all! by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 3, Funny

    *Bob Marley playing in background*

    [Jamaican accent]Come visit the beautiful sunny island of Svalbard and it's coastal villege Longyearbyen. It's always a blast, with fresh fish and internet access![/Jamaican accent]

    --
    "I only speak the truth"
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  2. What North Pole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's no North Pole in this story except the title. Makes TomMajor look like quite a sucker.

    1. Re:What North Pole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Svalbard is almost at the North Pole. I believe it is actually as close to the North Pole as anyone permenantly lives (ie closer than anyone gets except on expeditions).

  3. North Pole isn't in Norway! by psyconaut · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Isn't the (magnetic) North Pole in Canadian arctic waters? (Bear in mind there is no land mass North Pole!).

    -psy

  4. The poster got the wrong end of the stick by psyconaut · · Score: 5, Informative

    The idea is NOT to necessarily make this the best wired remote village, it's to BACKHAUL data from the satellite station that's located there. (If you read the story this becomes blatantly obvious).

    Providing connectivity for the village is just a (happy) side effect. I mean, did anyone really believe the Norweigan's were spending USD$40m to provide connectivity to 1700 people?

    -psy

  5. E-mail to Santa by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Funny

    What does this mean other than no need anymore to trust third parties when you want to get e-mail to Santa.

    And all those elves will be able to download elf-pr0n a lot faster.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  6. Re:Longyearbyen? by barakn · · Score: 5, Informative
    From infoplease.com:

    Longyearbyen , town and administrative center of Svalbard, on Isfjorden, Spitsbergen island. It is a coal-mining settlement, founded (1905) by an American company and named after the American miner J. M. Longyear. Its coal mines were transferred to a Norwegian company in 1916. It was destroyed (Sept., 1943) by German battleships but was quickly rebuilt.

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  7. Good for complaining, anyhow by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can call the phone company and say, "They've got DSL at the North Pole but you still can't figure out how to run it up my street?

    --
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