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James_W
Community Manager (Retired)
Community Manager (Retired)

Weird wifi around the world


You may have read elsewhere, that Virgin Media have transformed the high street, wifi wise. With some clever use of street furniture, we’ve been able to install the UK’s first Smart Pavement, with wireless signals being delivered from underneath paving slabs. Now, we know it’s awesome that you can surf with speed from Chesham’s bus-stops and benches but where in the world can you really get the most of your smart tech?

 

Mount Everest

Literally the pinnacle of this list – a Nepalese telecoms company have made wifi access available all the way up the mountain, although annoyingly, the connection drops just before the summit…

Clearly great for tweeting a humblebrag or two, uploading a selfie to Instagram or updating your Fitbit, think of the steps!

Airplanes

Bart Simpson debunked the myth that playing Gameboy mid flight was dangerous. And the world has caught up, with airlines offering WiFI access in the clouds.

The highlight of air travel used to be a movie and a packet of peanuts. Now, you can not only do things like this, but also live stream your own adventures on the web. See what happened in Virgin Atlantic's first ever in air live stream...

Virgin Atlantic inflight live-stream with Rudimental & Gorgon City.

North Pole

So, your fridge syncs up to your online supplier of choice, great. But how about an internet enabled freezer? Could wireless signals really work at sub-zero temperatures?

This was clearly the research proposal behind the expedition two Intel employees made to install a not-so-hotspot in the arctic circle. Just 50 miles from the North Pole, they hooked up a wireless router to a satellite phone, and managed to upload their shopping lists to the nearest supermarket.

Beaches

LA’s Venice Beach is fully connected. Upload your roller-skating Go-Pro footage, and then download an e-book while you out-crunch Schwarzenegger. Surprisingly, despite the summer downpour there’re lots of WiFi enabled beaches in the UK too

Cemetery?

Yes – a place of rest in Kentucky is now a WiFi zone. The volunteers at Paducah’s Oak Grove cemetery help genealogists research their ancestry and trace their family trees.

And finally...

The iLoo

This one never got off the ground – thankfully. But fairly detailed plans were pulled together by MSN UK a few years ago to install internet connected WiFi WC’s.  Periscope users the world over are undoubtedly relieved this idea failed to see the light of day.

What’s the strangest place you’ve got online? Where’s the weirdest location you’ve seen a "WiFi here" sign?

 

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