The strangest WiFi locations are everywhere.
It’s almost a year since Purple published one of our most popular blogs – the Top 6 Weirdest Places with WiFi. Think donkeys, the moon, cemeteries, the North Pole and mountains.
With that in mind, and a collection of our favourite WiFi headlines to hand, we thought it would be great to revisit the world’s strangest WiFi locations and see what’s new.
- The Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua
This puts the ‘hot’ in hotspot! The Masaya Volcano, located in Managua, Nicaragua, is getting WiFi. Researchers are installing it in the hope of improving predictions for the volcano’s eruptions. We don’t envy them the task of installing 80 wireless sensors inside the country’s most active volcano, also known as ‘The Mouth of Hell’. The rare lava lake in the crater is certainly a natural wonder, but one that’s best viewed from a distance!
The sensors will gather real time data about Masaya’s atmospheric pressure, temperature (feelin’ hot hot hot!), gravity and gases like carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. Volcanologists can put this data to great use, and there’s even a user friendly website that simplifies the results for those of us who aren’t as familiar with the science.
2. The International Space Station
If we can get WiFi on the moon, then the International Space Station has to have been an easy project, right? Hmm, perhaps not!
The International Space Station (or ISS for short) is a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. You might have seen it pass overhead – in fact, NASA have a website called ‘Spot the Station’ that’s dedicated to sightings and even tells you when the ISS is near you!
The internet connection on the International Space Station uses Ku-band, a satellite communications systems that also allows airplane passengers to access WiFi in-flight.
3. Sarahan Village, India
I know what you’re thinking – what’s weird about WiFi in a village? Well, for a start, the village is in the middle of a desert. AND the village didn’t even get electricity until 2005!
In that same year, a 20 metre WiFi tower was built, giving Sarahan’s 2000 residents instant access to an entire world of information online. Pretty neat, huh?
4. Val D’Isere, France
Ok, so it’s not that unusual to have WiFi at a ski resort, but what about in the ski lifts?
At Val D’Isere, a popular ski resort in the French Alps, visitors can connect to WiFi from the dizzying heights of their ski lifts and post scenic selfies straight to Instagram. To be honest, I was sold at the mention of heated seats.
5. National Parks, Canada
Canada is in the process of introducing 150 WiFi hotspots in up to 20 of its national parks. That’s no mean feat in an area stretching from the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic coasts, across mountains, plains, forests, glaciers and the Great Lakes – essentially as far North and South as Canada goes.
Tourists can stay connected even in the most remote locations whilst they soak up the scenery and splendour of the Canadian wilderness. From a safety perspective, it’s also really handy that the WiFi hotspots can connect you to GPS. That could be a lifesaver when the possibility of getting lost is very real!
As advancements in WiFi technology march on and hotspot 2.0 is rolled out, it’s inevitable that more and more weird locations get online. So Purple will be watching the connected volcano’s progress with interest (we know it’s nerdy!) and can only imagine what the WiFi landscape will look like this time next year.
Sources
The Verge
The Atlantic
www.onthesnow.com
National Geographic