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Telecommunications in Greenland include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Greenland has, by law, only one service provider for telecommunications and the Internet, TELE Greenland, which is fully owned by the Greenlandic Home Rule government.[1] TELE Greenland provides switched telephone and data, land mobile communications, and VHF and MF shore-to-ship communication.[2] This type of monopoly is not uncommon in Greenland.
Radio and television
Television in Greenland began in the 1960s.
Privately owned transmitters were created to receive TV from Canada, Iceland, and mainland Denmark. This can date as far back when television was introduced to Greenland in the 1960s. It was possible to receive TV from Canada with a normal household TV antenna, but color transmissions were NTSC and signals were in very bad quality and however in some circumstances, television transmissions were not available at all due to factors such as weather conditions or time of day, even for the people who owned private transmitters. Greenland did not have any local TV service until 1982.
The state broadcaster is Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (KNR, Greenlandic Broadcasting Corporation), which provides one television and one radio service nationwide.[3] Both broadcast in Greenlandic and Danish. Administered as an independent public corporation by the Greenlandic government, KNR has a seven-person board and management committee. They employ 100 people and are funded publicly and by advertising.[4]
A few private local TV and radio stations are also available as Danish public radio rebroadcasts.[5] An umbrella organization in Greenland, known as the STTK, operates local radio and TV stations throughout the country.[6] There are also American Forces Network stations, operated by the United States Air Force.
Greenlanders owned an estimated 30,000 radios and 30,000 television sets, as of 2002.[7][needs update]
As of 2019 there were 66,009 active mobile telephony subscriptions in use in Greenland. In 2007, all NMT (1G) networks were shut down. 4G launched in 2014.[10]
Mobile coverage extends to nearly all inhabited areas in Greenland except some remote areas.
In Greenland, VHF radio-telephone is also used. Users make calls over a radio instead of a phone. Outside of Greenland, VHF phones are mainly used on ships, but in Greenland they can also be used as regular phones. In 2001, 42% of Greenlanders owned a portable VHF phone.
On September 30, 2022, Tele Greenland has collaborated with Swedish Telecommunications provider Ericsson in building a 5G network in Greenland.[11]
As a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland has a democratically elected home-rule government whose powers may encompass all matters except foreign and national security affairs, police services, and monetary matters. Greenlanders have the same rights throughout the kingdom as other citizens.[14]
The Danish government places no restrictions on access to the Internet and there are no credible reports that e-mail or Internet chat rooms are monitored without appropriate legal authority. Authorities continue to employ an Internet filter designed to block child pornography. In no known cases did the filter affect legitimate sites. The Danish Constitution provides for freedom of speech and press with some limitations such as cases involving child pornography, libel, blasphemy, hate speech, and racism, and the government generally respects these rights in practice.[14]
^"TELE -". www.tele.gl. Archived from the original on 15 January 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
^"TELE Greenland A/S"Archived 12 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Telecommunication Development Bureau, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 17 December 1997. Retrieved 8 November 2009.
^ ab"Denmark", Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 22 March 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2014.