Finland Moves to Guarantee Universal Internet Access
Just about every modern democratic state has certain pillars of individual rights upon which its social and political philosophy is founded: the right of free speech; the right to a fair trial; the right to... broadband access? In one Nordic country, that may soon be the case.
In another searing reminder that Finland is, in fact, cooler than the rest of us, the Finnish government has passed a law making broadband access an inalienable right for every citizen. The Huffington Post reported Wednesday that by July 2010, when the law is slated to take effect, all of Finland's 5.3 million inhabitants will be guaranteed the right to a 1 Mbps broadband connection, reportedly making it the first country to implement a law of this kind. The government had previously passed a law aiming to provide nationwide access to a 100 Mbps connection by 2015, so the latest legislation could be viewed as an intermediary step towards the long-term goal of faster, more efficient universal connectivity.
There is still some work to be done, though, if these lofty goals are to be met. According to the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, roughly 287 out of every 1,000 citizens have broadband access, and, as of yet, there has been no indication as to how exactly the government plans to cover the remaining 70-percent or so. If universal coverage is achieved, it would represent not only a huge technological and political milestone, but a gold standard to which the rest of the world should aspire. Even if it falls a little short, though, the mere fact that the Finnish government is debating such policies, while our own Congress still hasn't been able to figure out how to guarantee more basic human rights, is, in a word, humbling. [From: Huffington Post]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Millerson said 4:34PM on 10-15-2009
Finland has it a lot easier, since they don't spend their tax revenue on bombing countries for the benefit of oil companies, and hence they have no need for billions of dollars of security measures against terrorists that would retaliate from those countries, nor does Finland need to spend billions of their citizen's tax dollars rebuilding what they blew up to overpriced contractors who give kickbacks to politicians. Yep, that's "evil socialism" for you. Those Finnish people just don't know how to run their country.
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Peter said 5:15AM on 10-16-2009
The number 287 per 1000 inhabitants is a bit wrong actually, most broadband connections are shared by e.g. a family.
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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