http://www.switched.com/2009/10/15/finland-moves-to-guarantee-universal-internet-access/ Switched Comments for Finland Moves to Guarantee Universal Internet Access http://www.switched.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.switched.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.switched.com/2009/10/15/finland-moves-to-guarantee-universal-internet-access/http://www.switched.com/2009/10/15/finland-moves-to-guarantee-universal-internet-access/Oct 15th 2009 4:34PMhttp://www.switched.com/2009/10/15/finland-moves-to-guarantee-universal-internet-access/http://www.switched.com/2009/10/15/finland-moves-to-guarantee-universal-internet-access/
The latest (30.6.2009) figure is a total of 2,243,900 broadband connections, for a population of 5,326,314 that is a broadband connection for every 2.4 persons. Considering that families usually have just one connection for the whole family, the majority of the population does have broadband access already. One should note that of those broadband connections 664,300 are mobile so there is some overlap (DSL at home, mobile at summer cottage, ...) although quite a few have moved from DSL/cable to mobile for good.

For most telco's the minimum speed for a DSL is already 1 Mbit/s (or for double the price get full-rate ADSL2+) so I think the only problem in this legislation is the rural areas where DSL may not be available and the mobile would still be at GPRS speeds. 3G isn't widely available at the rural areas. The telcos have been moving rural landlines to mobile and the customers haven't liked that.

The 2015 and 100 Mbit/s is the real challenge. I don't see it happening at larger scale, fiber is coming to the new areas and city centres and cable TV offers 110 Mbit/s but that's pretty much it. Some rural areas are building local fibers but a lot of people live between cities and countryside.
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