I have a summer cottage on Gambier Island near Vancouver. Actually it’s my wife’s cottage, but she sometimes lets me use it. One of the problems with the cottage is that it doesn’t have land access, electricity, or phone service.

The first problem was easy to deal with. You have a boat to get back and forth, or take the water taxi. The 2^nd problem was fairly easy to fix as well, with a bunch of coast guard surplus solar panels and a bunch of forklift batteries supply an inverter, and bingo – power.

The phone was a problem until the advent of the cell phone. Till that time one had to rely on a marine band telephone which was like having one huge party line shared by dozens of people. You had to wait your turn, and that could take hours.   So when the cell phone became an option, that took over, and since we’re only a few miles from town, all calls are local.