Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 21 May 2019
Wired Icelanders seek to keep remote peninsula digital-free

By EGILL BJARNASON mantic about lying on the
HORNSTRANDIR, Iceland ground with a broken thigh
(AP) — The passenger boat bone and no cellphone
arrives at the bottom of Vei- signal," Kristjansdottir said in
dileysufjordur, a short inlet an interview.
with a long name, to drop In a written response to
off backpackers for a multi- the lawmaker, Minister
day trek. A weather-beat- of Transport Sigurdur Ingi
en group that's completed Johannsson noted that
the trip waits to board, ea- huts along the hiking trails
ger to get back to a part of are equipped with radio-
Iceland where they can re- phones for emergencies.
connect with the world via He defended the absence
Wi-Fi. of digital connectivity in
By boat, that will take Hornstrandir as a factor in
about a half-hour. No roads "advancing visitor's experi-
lead to the Nordic coun- ence."
try's northernmost penin- Police and rescue work-
sula, a rugged glacial horn ers have suggested creat-
that reaches for the Arctic ing an illustrated map that
Circle. Making a phone marks the mountain sum-
call requires walking up a mits with the strongest sig-
mountain for a cell signal nals.
so weak, clouds seem ca- In this photo taken on Aug. 8, 2018, a local ranger for the Environment Agency of Iceland attempts The Environment Agency
pable of blocking it. to make a call from the unofficially named Telephone Mountain, in Vesteinn Runarsson, Iceland. of Iceland estimates that
But internet service soon Associated Press 3,000 people trek through
could be reaching the Hornstrandir every sum-
Hornstrandir Nature Re- ers' hands and push Horn- prohibitively expensive. Yet mother grew up, doesn't mer, moving from one fjord
serve, one of the last digital- strandir across the digital in Iceland, the prospect of have to look far down the to the next. Some are re-
free frontiers in what might divide. constant connectivity has family tree to see the ef- warded with sightings of
be the world's most-wired Companies such as Elon called up an old debate fect of digital devices: his the arctic fox, Iceland's
nation. The possibility has Musk's SpaceX are racing on whether Hornstrandir's teenage daughter refused only native land mammal.
most hikers, park rangers to deliver high-speed inter- wilderness should stay un- to come to Hornstrandir this The few structures — aban-
and summer residents wor- net service to every inch of wired. summer because it would doned farm houses and a
ried that email, news and the world by putting thou- Despite or because of its mean not having online decommissioned U.S. Air
social media will destroy a sands of small satellites into remoteness, Iceland ranks access. Force radar station — were
way of life that depends on low Earth orbit. Their suc- first on a U.N. index com- "But once the kids are here, abandoned decades ago.
the absence of all three. cess would have global paring nations by infor- all they do is play outside," When The Associated Press
"We see a growing appre- implications, bringing the mation technology use, Gudmundsson said. visited in August, the travel-
ciation for the lack of on- benefits and downsides of with roughly 98 percent of Northwest Iceland's repre- ers interviewed there unan-
line connection," Environ- internet communication to the population using the sentative in parliament is imously favored making
ment Agency of Iceland places that are off the grid internet. Among adults, less sentimental about the the reserve a digital-free
ranger Vesteinn Runarsson, because of poverty or war, 93 percent report having value of isolation. Since zone, though their notions
who patrols the peninsula's or where internet access is Facebook accounts and her election last year, Hal- of what that meant varied.
southern end on his own. reserved for the wealthy. two-thirds are Snapchat us- la Signy Kristjansdottir has "If phones worked here,
"Looking to the future, we That's also true for sparsely ers, according to pollster urged the Ministry of Trans- I am sure many people
want to keep Hornstrandir populated communities MMR. port to fund cell towers for would go as far as carrying
special in that way." and far-flung destinations Many people who live in the safety of sailors and battery packs to charge
The area has long resisted in Canada, Russia, Alaska northwestern Iceland or travelers whose mobile de- their devices," said Mikko
cell towers, but commer- and elsewhere in the vast visit as outdoor enthusi- vices currently are useless Ronkkonen, a hiker from
cial initiatives could take Arctic region, where broad- asts want Hornstrandir's in and near Hornstrandir. Finland who had just com-
the decision out of Iceland- band service generally is 570 square kilometers (220 "I don't see anything ro- pleted an eight-day trip.q
square miles), which ac-
counts for 0.6 percent of
Iceland's land mass, to be
declared a "digital-free
zone." The idea hasn't co-
alesced 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 farm-

In this Wednesday Aug. 8, 2018 photo, hikers and local sum- steads into summer get-
mer residents prepare to board the Hornstrandir passenger ferry aways. In this Thursday Aug. 9, 2018 photo, hikers during an early morn-
connecting the remote peninsula, only accessible by boat, to Alexander Gudmundsson, ing trek on the southern part of the Hornstrandir peninsula, in
Iceland's northwestern region. who vacations in the home Iceland.
Associated Press where his great-grand- Associated Press