Icelanders Seek To Keep Remote Nordic Peninsula Digital-Free (apnews.com)

Hikers, park rangers, and summer residents of Iceland's northernmost peninsula are seeking to keep the area free from internet service, worrying that all that comes with it "will destroy a way of life that depends on the absence of [email, news, and social media]," reports the Associated Press. "The area has long resisted cell towers, but commercial initiatives could take the decision out of Icelanders' hands and push Hornstrandir across the digital divide." From the report: Despite or because of its remoteness, Iceland ranks first on a U.N. index comparing nations by information technology use, with roughly 98 percent of the population using the internet. Among adults, 93 percent report having Facebook accounts and two-thirds are Snapchat users, according to pollster MMR. Many people who live in northwestern Iceland or visit as outdoor enthusiasts want Hornstrandir's 570 square kilometers (220 square miles), which accounts for 0.6 percent of Iceland's land mass, to be declared a "digital-free zone." The idea hasn't coalesced into a petition or formal campaign, so what it would require or prohibit hasn't been fleshed out. The last full-time resident of the rugged area moved away in 1952 -- it never was an easy place to farm -- but many descendants have turned family farmsteads into summer getaways. Northwest Iceland's representative, Halla Signy Kristjansdottir, is in favor of adding cell towers for the safety of sailors and travelers in the area. "I don't see anything romantic about lying on the ground with a broken thigh bone and no cellphone signal," Kristjansdottir said in an interview.

Comments

Re:Satellite Internet

[quenda]

Satellite coverage is always going to be a problem at the poles

No, that applies to geosynchronous broadcast satellites, but not to LEO constellations such as Starlink or Irridium.

Re:Yeah it's real annoying

[Rei]

Forest? *snicker*. Here's the joke everyone over the age of 8 here knows:

Q: What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest?
A: Stand up.

I've actually not been to Hornstrandir; it's been on my TODO list for a long, long time, but I've lacked one of the obligatory "round tuits". So it's actually surprising to hear that there's not internet access (via cell towers) there, because in general even the most remote places here have cell access. When Bárðarbunga erupted, deep in the highlands, the eruption was livestreamed. And there's a lot more people in Vestfirðir then in the highlands!

This would of course be more about visitors than residents, given that there's no permanent residents in Hornstrandir. And in some ways I can sympathize. For example, there's always a lot of opposition to improving the highland roads because we don't want to have more cars driving through and tons of people flooding in, and driving really fast on some paved road would totally change the experience of going into the highlands... it would just turn into a set of "sites to see" rather than a journey. The effect of the isolation on you can really be profound. You feel like a person exploring Mars - so tiny in an endless empty expanse, completely devoid of any signs of human civilization except the half-bulldozed-out "road" you take, the endless travel punctured by rushes of adrenaline as you try to ford a river or trying to avoid ruining your car crossing a lava field. And people who know that experience generally don't want to see it altered. So I imagine it's the same thing for Hornstrandir. The difference being, as previously mentioned, in much of the highlands there's cell coverage. At least as far as I know, when I go out I'm not checking Facebook all the time. ;) But I don't recall any meaningful loss of coverage events.

ED: Just checked a map from my cell provider. Looks like most of Hornstrandir is indeed marked in white (no coverage), while most of the highlands is light blue (2G) or in some places blue (3G) - even a good chunk of Vatnajökull (largest glacier in Europe).