Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Monday 25 June 2007, 5:24 PM
PlusNet's Polished mirror
PlusNet has always been quite good at catering to various segments of the market, but even they have stopped shy of introducing a foreign-language internet provision service within the UK - until now.
Today the ISP launched a mirror version of its normal website, but in Polish. Over to the company's product director, Neil Armstrong: "With the Polish community in the UK now numbering more than 750,000 people – two per cent of the global Polish population – we’re addressing their needs in a way that makes sense for them. We have had a strong Polish contingent working within PlusNet for over two years which has enabled us to launch a service that focuses on the community’s needs, in their native language of course."
It's all absolutely fascinating. I've never heard of any ISP offering a service within the UK that wasn't in English (or any other language generally considered to be native to these isles). And, if PlusNet's offering is the first, for it to be in Polish is extraordinary, considering how the Polish population in the UK has only really shot up in the last few years. Is there not an ISP that offers a Bengali service? Urdu?
I may be underinformed, so correct me if you know better...
Today the ISP launched a mirror version of its normal website, but in Polish. Over to the company's product director, Neil Armstrong: "With the Polish community in the UK now numbering more than 750,000 people – two per cent of the global Polish population – we’re addressing their needs in a way that makes sense for them. We have had a strong Polish contingent working within PlusNet for over two years which has enabled us to launch a service that focuses on the community’s needs, in their native language of course."
It's all absolutely fascinating. I've never heard of any ISP offering a service within the UK that wasn't in English (or any other language generally considered to be native to these isles). And, if PlusNet's offering is the first, for it to be in Polish is extraordinary, considering how the Polish population in the UK has only really shot up in the last few years. Is there not an ISP that offers a Bengali service? Urdu?
I may be underinformed, so correct me if you know better...
PreviousComments on this post
What about Welsh?
Ah, but Welsh is a native language to these isles.
E português? Existem muitos brasileiros no Reino Unido.
And Portuguese? There are many Brazilians in the UK.
Yeesh - OK, there are lots of South Africans here too (I'm one) so you could throw Afrikaans into the mix while you're at it. By saying "native" (how did I know that would be contentious?) I meant English, Welsh, er, Gaelic and... Cornish? Anyway, the languages that have been spoken here for hundreds and hundreds of years by lots of people.
So, to reiterate my point, I find it remarkable that the first language not on that list to be taken up by an ISP is Polish...
