World's First Wireless Island Network Shutdown Over Legal Squabble
from the time-to-pay-up dept
So much for that plan. The small island of Niue, near Australia, made a bit of news last June when it announced that the entire island was covered with a free WiFi network - which was promoted as a way to bring more tourists to the small island nation. It appears, however, that the Minister of Tourism didn't communicate with the Minister of Telecom in the nation, and the network has been shut down by the Telecom Minister for not having paid for a "radio license". Those who run the network say that WiFi is exempt from the nation's laws requiring radio licenses, but the bureaucrats apparently want their license fee. Considering the island only has a population of about 2,000 (which has been rapidly decreasing), you would think it would make sense for them to quickly work out a compromise that would help them attract tourists back to the island again.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Try Nauru
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
I thought people went to small islands to get away from things like computers.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Niue's Wireless Access
What happened back in September of 2003 was that the director of Telecom Niue ordered the dark copper to the downtown Internet cafe "cut", basically because he didn't understand the difference between DSL and wifi.
Then mysteriously, a couple weeks later, the government opened up their own Internet cafe.
But the wifi was not shut down. The whole episode was a futile attempt at keeping wifi technology from the people of Niue, and it failed.
At this point about a third of the wifi users are government and the rest are private sector. The wireless is especially important after the cyclone in January which destroyed a major chunk of the telephone line infrastructure.
But make no mistake, the wifi on Niue is going strong and is a major part of Niue's communications infrastructure.
I just came across your statements about the wifi on Niue and wanted to set it straight.
[ link to this | view in thread ]