high speed internet for St. Helena Island, petition
Discussion
poo at Paul's said:
Yes, but what have the St Helenan's ever done for us?
I knew a local "large" house who employed a st helenan couple to cook, clean and garden.I was very friendly with their daughter, let's just say she did her bit for uk-st Helena relations.
I took the dad from Essex to Cardiff docks to meet the st Helena boat, his son was on it, the dad used to work on board so we ended up losing the whole weekend chatting and drinking, great times.
And the cheeky buggers loaded my e reg Orion that I'd parked on quayside onto the boat to take home.
davepoth said:
0a said:
They need to move the cable by 100km according to the website. How expensive would that be? Can't they just use a long patch cable?
They're talking less than £10m, which is about what we gave the banks in the length of time it just took me to fart. 
Denorth said:
burnt factory? this is news to me unless we are talking about different things. So far the factory I know (precessing and freezing localy caught tuna and some other species) has been working fine for several years providing local fishermen with steady mean of actual earning rather than getting money from the governement.
otherwise, luck of industry is devastating. due to distance and difficulty to reach not many investors want to put money into anything there.
hopefully airport will help them to establish good tourist destination since right now many people want but don't go there since it takes a lot of hustle to get there
Sorry, my mistake; it was the fish factory on Tristan da Cunha that burnt down. It's certainly on my list of places to visit - but passage on the boat isn't exactly cheap, even if you fly out to Cape Town to take the "short" trip over.otherwise, luck of industry is devastating. due to distance and difficulty to reach not many investors want to put money into anything there.
hopefully airport will help them to establish good tourist destination since right now many people want but don't go there since it takes a lot of hustle to get there
Edited by Denorth on Sunday 19th February 08:55
Denorth said:
davepoth said:
0a said:
They need to move the cable by 100km according to the website. How expensive would that be? Can't they just use a long patch cable?
They're talking less than £10m, which is about what we gave the banks in the length of time it just took me to fart. Eric Mc said:
Denorth said:
davepoth said:
0a said:
They need to move the cable by 100km according to the website. How expensive would that be? Can't they just use a long patch cable?
They're talking less than £10m, which is about what we gave the banks in the length of time it just took me to fart. 
te, I know which I'd prefer.doogz said:
Maybe i'm selfish, but when i get high speed broadband at my house here in the UK, i'll consider signing petitions for UK taxpayers to pay for people elsewhere to have it.
St. Helenans are UK taxpayers though. And the government quite happily spunks this kind of money on broadband for other UK taxpayers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15937140
And that's for major cities where it would be financially viable for a commercial enterprise to do it.
Perhaps in less supposedly austere times, but not at the moment thank you very much. They can club together and pay for it themselves like remote villages are asked to do by BT.
They can pretend all they want that it is for the purposes of furthering business, healthcare and education but in the event of the island getting a high speed connection you just know that 99% of the traffic will destined for facebook and youtube.
They can pretend all they want that it is for the purposes of furthering business, healthcare and education but in the event of the island getting a high speed connection you just know that 99% of the traffic will destined for facebook and youtube.
AndrewW-G said:
I have a cunning plan, let’s give St Helena to Sean Penn and then he can pay for the net connection
I'm sure if we told him it was the Falklands he'd never realise. doogz said:
They are? You sure?
And if they are, they're still receiving huge sums of money from the UK Government to prop them up. Which is fine. And as for the UK taxpayers money being spent on supplying high speed broadband, that's my point. After i've got it, i'll start signing petitions for other people to have it. In the mean time, i live on the UK mainland, and barely see speeds better than when i had a 56k modem. So i'm not too up for the idea of taxpayers money, lots of it, being spent to provide such a service for elsewhere.
Yes, I'm pretty sure. They have the same status as the Falklands. And if they are, they're still receiving huge sums of money from the UK Government to prop them up. Which is fine. And as for the UK taxpayers money being spent on supplying high speed broadband, that's my point. After i've got it, i'll start signing petitions for other people to have it. In the mean time, i live on the UK mainland, and barely see speeds better than when i had a 56k modem. So i'm not too up for the idea of taxpayers money, lots of it, being spent to provide such a service for elsewhere.
It's true that the UK Government supports St. Helena massively, but that's only because they don't have any way of supporting themselves. A broadband connection would allow islanders the opportunity to do, for example, call centre work, which is currently outsourced to India. Or graphic design. Or any other activity that can be done by tele-presence.
More than anything else that we could do, this presents the best opportunity for the UK government to get St. Helena into a position where we don't have to send them lots of money in the future. It should result in a net saving to the UK government in the long term, which is why I've signed.
johnfelstead said:
Satellite broadband not an option?
http://www.connectsthelena.org/faq.phpThat's how they're connected at the moment. A 7.6m dish to get 10mb/s suggests that Intelsat 707 is in a far from ideal position for communications, but probably the best of a bad bunch. It's not really in a location many providers are willing to loft a satellite to cover.
Being sensible for a second, could we not simply divert some of the cash being thrown at none commonwealth countries? or for example India have already said they don’t want our borrowed aid momey and I'm sure given the size of their army and how happy they were to house Bin Laden, Pakistan feel the same (ETA, I know that both India and Pakistan are for some strange reason, members of the commonwealth)
Edited by AndrewW-G on Sunday 19th February 16:33
Esseesse said:
Doesn't look that that nice there. 
Anyone been there?
planning to. possibly next year. all due to work. Jamestown is a nice looking placeAnyone been there?
there is a mention of Commonwealth countries - India is one of the biggest economy in the world, sure they won't notice 10mil of our money missing. Why do we pay them at all?
Denorth said:
planning to. possibly next year. all due to work. Jamestown is a nice looking place
there is a mention of Commonwealth countries - India is one of the biggest economy in the world, sure they won't notice 10mil of our money missing. Why do we pay them at all?
So they can choose French fighter planes. there is a mention of Commonwealth countries - India is one of the biggest economy in the world, sure they won't notice 10mil of our money missing. Why do we pay them at all?
Of all of the lonely bits of rock we still own, I think St. Helena looks nicest. Here's a couple of pics pulled off Google Maps.
Edited by davepoth on Sunday 19th February 17:58
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff