Pitcairn Island, one of the world’s most isolated, storied, and fascinating communities has doubled its Internet access to 512kbps, to be shared among its 48 residents.

The island, of course, is home to the modern descendants of the infamous 1789 "mutiny on the Bounty" story, which involved the British ship the HMS Bounty. Many books and films have been created to capture the story of a band of mutineers as they eluded the British Navy and set up shop on this remote island in the south Pacific.

According to a report last month from Radio New Zealand International, the United States Geological Survey has a seismic station on the island, and pays for a satellite Internet connection for the station. Locals pay NZ$100 ($81) per month for up to 2GB of data. A team from the United States is set to travel to Pitcairn in June to upgrade the satellite link.

Many Pitcairn Islanders are direct descendants of Fletcher Christian, the leader of the the 18th-century group of mutineers. Despite their historic ties and home in one of the most remote corners of the globe, these islanders are no luddites. In October 2010, the first iPad arrived on the island. It went to Andrew Christian—naturally, a seventh-generation descendant of Christian.

"They’re able to sell their products online such as honey, carvings, collectible items that people around the world are interested in buying," said Bill Haigh, manager of the .pn domain name, in an interview with Radio NZ. "Just the ability to reach out and find new markets has been an enormous boost to them."

Update: Herb Ford, the head of the Pitcairn Islands Study Center, located at Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, e-mailed Ars to say: "It’s past time that the Pitcairn islanders have good, fast access. It will certainly help them economically (through the online sale of crafts, honey, etc.) Heretofore things have been far too slow, with all-to-frequent breakdowns of the system. For some time many on the Island have found that for some reason they can communicate faster through Facebook than with e-mail."

Ford also added that these types of infrastructure upgrades have historically been slow to arrive on Pitcairn. "I'll believe it when I see it," he wrote.