2005 Downtown Stewart- 5th Ave.. Nestled in the mountains at the head of a very long narrow fjord in northwestern BC.

2005- Downtown Stewart- 5th Ave.. Nestled in the mountains at the head of a very long narrow fjord in north-western BC.and presently living an unwanted experiment without the world wide web
Photo Credit: magnus Manske- wiki

Blast into the past- life without internet

A small village in northern British Columbia is living an unwilling experiment.

Stewart, a town of about 500 souls, is located at the head of a very long narrow fjord on the coast, and right beside the Alaska panhandle, and about 1,500 km north of Vancouver.

For twenty years the internet has provided a window to the wider world, but suddenly late last month, the clock went back two decades when the town’s provider shut down.

The town’s non-profit provider “One Way Out”, had advised the community of the problem but the council said a suitable alternative couldn’t be found before the plug was pulled.

The tiny community of Stewart wil be experiencing life without internet for the next month or more after its only provider shut down and before new service can be arranged
The tiny community of Stewart wil be experiencing life without internet for the next month or more after its only provider shut down and before new service can be arranged © google-mm

Now this may seem an interesting way to go back to a simpler time without email, but even if you wanted a good old fashioned book from the library, their card catalogue is down.  Stores can’t complete internet transactions and without a movie theatre, those relying on YouTube for entertainment, email, or other online services, are also out of luck.

Mayor Galina Durant, of the District of Stewart. told Tamsyn Burgmann of the Canadian Press,  “To stay without Internet — it’s like you cut a line of life”.

Just last month, the provincial government said it would spend $10 million to bring high-speed service to all remote areas of the province by 2021, but upgrades were too expensive for the local provider.

A telecom giant in Canada, Telus, is working with a provider in the town of Terrace about 300km away to provide a new service.

That will take between four to eight weeks, a chance to experience life before email and Facebook.

Categories: Internet, Science & Technology, Society
Tags: , , , ,

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.