YNP bandwidth controversy

What, no Wal-Mart or Sports bars in the park?

I know that this is hopefully just being paranoid ... but just wait (if you live long enough) until science finally proves and publishes that all that radio energy running around in the air does harm, and has harmed, all life forms except termities.

Of course it'll be too late for us dead ones by then. ;)

Ray,IN wrote:
The article offers insight ($34 million) into the reasoning for the sizable increase in NP entrance fees coming next year.

Just makes the geezer pass a better deal. :)

The same arguments and anguish as when the NPS first brought electricity to the National Parks.

The article offers insight ($34 million) into the reasoning for the sizable increase in NP entrance fees coming next year.

To say that national parks should be constrained to the pre-wireless era is a bit like saying we should stick with the stagecoaches and gravel roads of yesteryear. Civilization and society moves forward, the parks should come along too.

Hopefully there is a commercially viable business case for improving wireless connectivity in the park. We spent a week in the park this summer, and the worst part of the trip by far was lack of connectivity. Worse than the pouring rain and six inches of water in the campgrounds.

Perhaps some travel to national parks for the isolation--although those campgrounds and roads and parking lots are pretty packed to the brim with people. I feel like folks who want isolation should be in the Frank Church Wilderness or somewhere else truly remote. Still, if someone wants to unplug in the NP's, great, go for it.

For the rest of us...The fun of being connected all the time is that it's like all your friends are on vacation with you at the same time. And you're on vacation with them all the time. Somewhat like the forums, only in real time. So having no connectivity meant not bringing along any friends :(

pappcam wrote:
How about highways to transport your exhaust spewing RV? Does that ruin your enjoyment of the park as well?

Cell phone towers are not necessary. Highways are.

By the way, my "exhaust spewing RV" spews a whole lot less than yours.

Is this the view that you are worried about?

Grant Village

Shearwater wrote:
A cell tower is about the last thing I would want to see in a National Park. I guess roller coasters, water slides, and McDonalds would be about as bad.

How about highways to transport your exhaust spewing RV? Does that ruin your enjoyment of the park as well?

A cell tower is about the last thing I would want to see in a National Park. I guess roller coasters, water slides, and McDonalds would be about as bad.