Nu is the
French past participle verb for
naked.
It is also the ISO 3166 country code Top Level Domain for the Pacific microstate of Niue (pronounced 'new-way') . This dependency of New Zealand has a population of 2,000 living on top of a coral atoll, south of Samoa and north-east of Tonga. Its isolation and miniscule population size has meant that telecommunications between Niue and the outside world depends on a expensive satellite connection.
Fortunately a visionary outsider called J. William Semich was able to associate the two uses of NU together. In 1997 he marketed use of the Top Level Domain, presumably to customers wanting to sell porn to frisky Francophones. The royalties generated have allowed Nieuans to go from a nineteenth century style phones to the world's most modern telecommunication system in barely six years. Before the telephone system based not on phone numbers but the number of rings that the caller generates when the crank is turned. Now, Nieuans not only enjoy free e-mail and phone calls on the island, but also free international phone calls as well (useful, as Nieuans are the most expatriated nationality in the world, with 90% living overseas). Furthermore, cash, and the small, flat size of Niue has allowed the island to become the first country in the world to have a nation-wide Wi-Fi internet access service.
ref: www.nunames.nu