A proposal being reviewed by the Department of the Interior is pondering the advantages of bringing WiFi to national park sites. The Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee, now defunct, initiated the recommendation, reports KIRO-TV.
If the proposal advances, it would clear the way for private businesses to operate within campgrounds. Rustic locations at various campsites across the United States could see the arrival of internet service, food trucks, and Amazon deliveries.
While some visitors welcome the availability of expanded cell phone services and modern amenities, others believe the incursion would ruin the spirit of a wilderness experience.
In favor of the proposal, Mount Rainier visitor Abby Gray told KIRO-TV, “Today we had to kind of go to different coffee shops to try to get signal and get WiFi to find our way around and try to figure out where we were going to go, so the WiFi really appealed to me a lot.” Expressing an opposing viewpoint, park visitor Rena Watkins said, “Don’t mess it up, don’t mess it up. No doubt in my mind that it would disrupt the system and we don’t need that, we don’t need it. Just come out here and see this stuff the way it is and the way it was meant to be.”
The National Park Service has not yet made a decision on what services might be allowable, or which national parks would be candidates for modernization.
November 12, 2019
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