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Congressmen Call For More Wi-Fi In Parks, But Can National Park Service Manage It?

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While there might be high demand for Internet connectivity in the National Park System, many parks don't yet provide it, and experts say it could be challenging to provide it/NPS, David Restivo

A small handful of days before the National Park Service announced that its maintenance backlog had crept up to nearly $12 billion, five congressmen called for more funding for Internet connectivity in the National Park System. But here's the rub: Can the National Park Service easily provide that service if told to provide it? The experts don't think so. 

Wiring places like Grand Canyon National Park, Glacier National Park, and Yellowstone National Park does not happen as quickly or inexpensively as calling your local Internet Service Provider in, say, Chicago or New York or Kansas City and asking to have the service turned out. Many national parks are relatively remote from major fiber optics systems and phone service that can handle the additional load. Another issue is the harsh weather some parks endure in the winter and, in the case of Death Valley National Park, the summer.

Peter Jarich, vice president and wireless network infrastructure analyst at research firm Current Analysis, says all those issues can make it challenging for the Park Service to wire the park system. And then there's also the need to make the Wi-Fi infrastructure unobtrusive.

“You don’t want to detract from the reason why people are coming to the park in terms of beauty, so there’s going to have to be some level of disguising,” he told FedTech Magazine.

The question of whether to provide greater connectivity in the National Park System can generate stalwart proponents...and opponents. Back in 2009 officials in Yellowstone adopted a Wi-Fi and cellphone plan, something that led Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility to dub the efforts "a disturbing stealth scheme to wire our national park system."

PEER launched a petition drive with hopes of landing 15,000 signatures on a letter asking Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to halt Wi-Fi plans in the park system, saying that "(V)isitors come to national parks in search of serenity and unspoiled vistas, but the proliferation of cell phone towers throughout our park system makes it increasingly difficult to escape the electronic tendrils of society and commune with nature while someone next to you is jabbering on a cell phone, receiving texts, or watching videos."

However, just 2,045 people signed the petition, far below the 15,000-signature goal.

Comments

Forcing my priorities?  I'll leave that for the previous Superintendant of GCNP and his buddy Wessels at Intermountain (retired).  

Im done for the day here, EC.  Heading into the Canyon to surf the web at a hot spot, not.  


Progress in a National Park and the country as well is very subjective, Park Ranger.   The very idea of progress in something that most would agree needs to be preserved for it's redeeming qualities is a slippery slope in my opinion.


 Folks don't want wifi in nature.

Your basis for that statement?

 
Obviously it's the same as yours.


Obviously it's the same as yours.

My what? What declaration did I make?


OK, guys, knock it off please.


Sorry, Kurt.  I was trying to get the point across that this is one of those things that has no end because every comment is based upon opinion.  When anyone tries to pass their opinions off as some sort of concrete something or other, it simply ends up with a circular discussion that can go nowhere.  It's the very thing that stymies finding solutions by compromise.

In my not so humble OPINION, I wish there was some way to wire the parks, but to do so in such a way that wifi signals would be restricted to insides of buildings and not everywhere else. 


In my opinion... I think its ok to have wifi at hotels, lodges, visitor centers, and other commercial areas of the park. I think this is what they mean when they ask for more wifi. It is not the same as cell phone service. Wifi enables people to move data without the need to do it over cell towers. This can able someone to share photos with others,  research what they saw in the park on the internet, or reference National Park Traveler on a Parks discussion. Not talk on a cell phone. Nobody is asking them to put wifi in the back country. Now cell service in the back country is a different topic.


David - exactly!

And Lee, you are right as well.  Opinion isn't fact and shouldn't be expressed as such - which was the point of my question to Smokies.


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