Friday 13 February 2009

Fractions of a second

It seems Londonderry is annoyed. A new super-duper transatlantic cable bringing ultrafast internet connection to Northern Ireland won’t be coming ashore in Derry, but in Coleraine instead.

Flustered MLAs were up in arms at the slight…perhaps some should have mentioned that geography plays little or no connection with the access to the net, as the information superhighway has lanes where the data flows really, really quickly. So quick that it exceeds the speed an MLA from Derry can claim his or her nose is out of joint.

Of course what the row is about is that the DUP is supposed to have lobbied for it to touch land at Coleraine, while it had been claimed the hub should be situated in ‘disadvantaged’ Derry to attract inward investment. Err, there are no permanent extra jobs being created, and the all of the northern counties of Northern Ireland will benefit. It is tempting to claim this is a storm in a teacup, except it is a storm in an internet forum instead. Apologies to Derry readers who may have to wait an extra millisecond to read our blog post…

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