Also, since I’m called Jack too, and maintain the site, it might save some confusion if you picked a different name to post as!

Did you mean to leave this comment on the more recent Wifi post?

Also, and unrelated: Storm Thormond died. I hope there is a special corner of hell reserved for him to rot in.

David Fickling in Sydney
Friday June 27, 2003
The Guardian

Until a few years ago, telecommunications on the Pacific island of Niue consisted of a few hand-cranked telephones. But this week the tiny country is launching the world’s most sophisticated national internet service.

The 100 square mile lump of coral 1,500 miles north-east of New Zealand is to become the first country in the world to have a nationwide wireless internet system. Locals with a laptop and an aerial will be able to surf the net at home, on the beach, in a restaurant, or from a boat.

Wireless internet has been the holy grail of telecommunications for years. Internationally the system is found, albeit still quite rarely, on Wap and 3G mobile phones.

Niue, however, according to the island’s internet users’ society, will soon enjoy a free wireless service almost as fast as a typical broadband connection.

The society will hang solar-powered aerials from coconut palms to bring the internet to the island’s population of 1,700 in the coming months.

“Copper wires corrode too quickly and easily get knocked out by lightning strikes,” said the society’s Richard Saint Clair. “We’re better off doing without them altogether.”

Emigration has caused a population slump on Niue. But where in 1991 there were just 376 telephone lines in use, Niueans now send up to 30,000 emails a week and spend 6,000 hours online a month.

The island’s internet society grew under the tutelage of the American computing journalist William Semich.

The technology being adopted is identical to the wireless internet available in some offices, hotels and cafes in big cities around the world. The difference on Niue is that the system is free for public use.

Its only potential problem is that it depends on a satellite link to sites not based on the island. “If someone tried to download a big document from somewhere else, it would probably block up the whole network,” said Mr Semich.

Much of the island’s web investment has been made possible by selling rights to use its .nu domain name. Tens of thousands of companies worldwide have paid £18 each to put the suffix after their internet addresses.

BBC article was added to memigo. Thanks!
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