8 ms·
The Svalbard fibre optic cable connection (2022)
- gottorf 3y agoI can recommend a visit. It's an easy flight from the Norwegian mainland.
- sgt 3y agoJust very far.
- arcticbull 3y agoA lot of the coolest places are, in my experience :)
- LAC-Tech 3y agoIt's only a 3 hour flight from Oslo.
- canjobear 3y agoSeconded. If you’re already in Norway the flights are not too expensive. If you feel the romance of remote far north environments, Svalbard will not disappoint.
- cardiffspaceman 3y agoHow often are the flights to Longyearbyen canceled?
- EliRivers 3y agoSvalbard has a very weird legal status. It has visa-free right to live there and work there. Russia maintains a population there at a loss-making coal mine, arguably to keep a persistent claim of having a national interest in it. As well as the location being ideal for polar satellite comms, with the opening of trade routes past Svalbard (with the melting of the Arctic) suddenly a lot of nations care a lot more and Norway and NATO allies have picked up the pace on exercises in the region. I have reason to believe that "what do we do if Russia decides it wants to take Svalbard" is regularly considered in military planning. The Svalbard treaty is a weird leftover from a different time; a time when Svalbard was much less valuable. Svalbard has a surprisingly large Thai population. I don't know about today, but at one point about ten percent of the population were Thai citizens.
- killjoywashere 3y ago> ideal for polar satellite comms Indeed, Svalbard can be a handy keyword if you want to find articles on ionospheric disturbances to satellite comms, like GPS. > surprisingly large Thai population Hmmm... that sounds suspiciously like fisheries-related slavery/indentured servitude. See also: Dutch Harbor.
- wbl 3y agoI've been to Dutch Harbor but in the summer: sadly only three restaurants none of them Thai. But some good sushi and decent pizza. And apparently they now have a fiber connection to the rest of the world.
- yorwba 3y agohttps://journal-njmr.org/articles/10.33134/njmr.488 https://journal-njmr.org/articles/10.33134/njmr.488 says job opportunities for migrants from Thailand and the Philippines are "limited to the spheres of cleaning, shop assistance, construction works, catering (hotels, restaurants and cafés), massage studios or the Thai store", so no fishing. But "as Norwegian legislation regulating working conditions is only partially valid in Svalbard, people without permanent full-time jobs often accept conditions that are immoral".
- 3y ago
- korhojoa 3y agoAnother cool thing about this is that if you're at any of the universities that use this connection, they have a network monitoring tool available internally that shows the link utilization for the connection (uninett's nav). It's pretty cool to see the variation. (spotted this myself during an extended stay on the lofoten islands) Seems like a really neat place to visit, hope to be able to go one day.
- e12e 3y agoNav is foss: https://nav.uninett.no/ https://nav.uninett.no/ And some data on Uninett is open, eg: https://stats.uninett.no/stat-q/load-map/uninett,,traffic,peak https://stats.uninett.no/stat-q/load-map/uninett,,traffic,pe... https://stats.uninett.no/kartg/last/uninett/norge/geo/nuh https://stats.uninett.no/kartg/last/uninett/norge/geo/nuh
- bjornasm 3y agoIf you are at a university I highly recommend trying to take a subject on UNIS.
- nocarrier 3y ago“During the period 2018-20, Space Norway carried out significant security related upgrades to the fibre connection.” Sounds like someone was tapping cables with submarines?
- fmajid 3y agoOnly the USS Jimmy Carter has that capability, AFAIK. Likely more concerned with sabotage, as happened to the Finland-Estonia fiber can pipeline link recently.
- aaron695 3y ago[dead]
- iSnow 3y agoI guess they had a sense of foreboding, as in 2022, a Russian fish trawler damaged that cable link: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43828/undersea-cable-connecting-norway-with-arctic-satellite-station-has-been-mysteriously-severed https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43828/undersea-cable-c...
- Erwin 3y agoSvalbard is larger than I thought, but not as large as the projection tricks you to: it's 1/6th the area of Norway shown below. On thetruesize.com you can drag Svalbard around and compare it to other countries, it's roughly the size of all of Ireland.
- elamje 3y agoI've gone to Svalbard a few times and spent a lot of time in Norway. It's a really interesting place. GitHub has the Arctic Code Vault there. The Global Seed Vault is there. Lots of satellites and climate change research happen there. The local deer (reindeer) population evolved without natural predators there, so they aren't scared of people or cars like animals in other parts of the world. It's got pretty much the most Northern <insert anything> in the world, such as the northern most Lenin statue. I wrote a bit about it and the Russian influence still there on Twitter a while back. https://twitter.com/elamje/status/1677013676635611146 https://twitter.com/elamje/status/1677013676635611146
- jaktet 3y agoIs there another link? I just see four pictures but no text, I’d love to read what you wrote.
- iSnow 3y agoThe whole thread: https://nitter.net/elamje/status/1677013676635611146 https://nitter.net/elamje/status/1677013676635611146
- consumer451 3y agoFor anyone who wants to make a twitter>nitter redirect automatic via browser extension: https://libredirect.github.io/ https://libredirect.github.io/
- cheerytomatoes 3y agoIf you do visit, definitely make time to see the Russian coal mining settlements in Barentsburg and Pyramiden. From the Lenin statues to the communist artwork to the gym equipment, they serve as almost untouched time capsules of the Soviet era.
- Hikikomori 3y agoHad a smaller private boat for our trip to pyramiden, but the wind got strong and whipped up large waves on the return trip so had to go back to Pyramiden when we got to more open sea. Luckily we were able to get a ride on a larger tourist boat crewed by Philippines. The Russians working in Pyramiden were taking a helicopter the next day as they were closing for the season. Trip back took like 5 hours, most of the tourists spent the trip on the floor puking in bags while we walked over them to order beer from the bar and talk to the Philippine crew.
- aaron695 3y ago[dead]
- cheerytomatoes 3y agoIt's interesting that they didn't land the cable near Tromsø, but rather IN the Lofoten Islands! My guess is that they want it to stay out in deeper waters until it gets to somewhere that submarines can't easily sneak up to unnoticed.
- hoyd 3y agoThe cable is connected to Breiviks på Andøy, which is in Vesterålen, not in the Lofoten Islands.
- rdp36 3y agoI love Norway and as a US citizen I hope to move there someday!!!
- petre 3y agoThe US Navy is an option. https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/new-norway-usa-defense-agreement-allows-extensive-us-authority-north https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/new-norway-usa-defense-agre...