Telecommunications in Greenland

Radio and television

Television in Greenland began in the 1960s.

Privately owned transmitters were created to receive TV from Canada, Iceland, and 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. 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.

A few private local TV and radio stations are also available as Danish public radio rebroadcasts. An umbrella organization in Greenland, known as the STTK, operates local radio and TV stations throughout the country. 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.

Telephones

There are no area codes in Greenland, and all telephone numbers have 6 digits.

There are adequate domestic and international telephone services, provided by cables and microwave radio relay. The system was totally digitized in 1995. The Greenland Connect submarine cable provides connectivity to Europe via Iceland and to North America via Newfoundland. TELE Greenland first used satellite communication in 1978 and currently uses 15 satellite earth stations (12 Intelsat, 1 Eutelsat, and 2 Americom GE-2), all over the Atlantic Ocean.

Mobile

Today, Greenland has more mobile phones than landlines.

As of 2007 there are 66.400 active GSM (2G) and UMTS (3G) subscriptions in use in Greenland. In 2007, all NMT (1G) networks were shut down. Nova was first to offer 4G.

Mobile coverage extends to nearly all inhabited areas in Greenland, but there are some remote areas that do not have mobile coverage.

In Greenland, VHF radio-telephone is also used. You are talking over a radio instead of a phone. Normally VHF phones are only used on ships, but in Greenland they can also used as regular phones. Greenland does not have telephone connection over the whole country, so sometimes it may be easier to use a VHF phone. In 2001, 42% of Greenlanders owned a portable VHF.

Internet

Internet censorship and surveillance

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.

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.

In April 2013, the registrar for the .gl domain unilaterally voluntarily suspended resolution of thepiratebay.gl, intended to be a new primary Domain Name for the famous Bittorrent search engine The Pirate Bay. This caused transient inconvenience to some File Sharing Internet users.