Broadband now a ‘legal right’ in Finland

[champbassist]

Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'

Also:

From 1 July every Finn will have the right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection.

Finland has vowed to connect everyone to a 100Mbps connection by 2015.

A bit over the top, making broadband a legal right?

[basstotheface]

I can see reasons for it, higher education and literacy rate, better world knowledge of the people, etc. Still a little over the top.

[Auzzie-Phoenix]

Makes better sense than cable television for prison inmates.

[Tsal]

Originally Posted by champbassist

A bit over the top, making broadband a legal right?

Part of the deal is that the government has been pushing to transform the bureaucracy into more efficient internet-based form. They aim to reduce the costs by shifting from physical letters to internet forms, which also allows them to drop the amount of customer service personnel and centralize a lot of smaller offices into single big service centers. Hence, they need to make sure that everyone has the possibility to use the practically-internet-only public services.

Other thing is the long distances in some parts of the country, especially in Lapland, where small amount of population lives somewhat isolated. The telecom companies have had no interest in putting up any other services than basic cell phone masts, because they'd have to pull tens or hundreds of miles of cables just to hook a few distant villages or farmsteads up. The law forces them to at least have modern cell phone services up there, that can be used for decent wireless connections.

[Jazz Ad]

It may sound strange to US citizens but it makes perfect sense to me. Around here, access to water, phone lines, TV reception and electricity already are rights. They're discussing broadband.

[MadMan118]

I wish they'd do that here if at least to force companies to lower costs and provide better service.

[Nikoubis]

Originally Posted by MadMan118

I wish they'd do that here if at least to force companies to lower costs and provide better service.

That sounds un-American...

[champbassist]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

It may sound strange to US citizens but it makes perfect sense to me. Around here, access to water, phone lines, TV reception and electricity already are rights. They're discussing broadband.

Well I did say a bit over the top.

It's not something hugely absurd. It's a good thing, but the concept of something as material as broadband (also TV and electricity, now that you mention it) being a right is pretty alien to me, here. Especially when we are struggling to implement even the (recently constituted) right to education with our 1.1399 billion population.

[RestInPieces]

Not at all over the top. I live in a small town here in Finland (something like 7000 inhabitants) only 6 miles from the town center and we basically had to fight to get an internet connection. At first none of the companies were willing to give us any kind of internet connection, they just said "You live too far away". After a few long calls to the managers one company gave us a crappy 256mpbs connection. We lived with that for 3 years from 2006-2009, at least now we have a decent wireless connection.

[vene-nemesis]

1 Mbps = 1 megaBAUD/s = 1'024 megabit/s ...

[Eric Perry]

Originally Posted by Auzzie-Phoenix

Makes better sense than cable television for prison inmates.

Agreed.

[champbassist]

Originally Posted by RestInPieces

Not at all over the top. I live in a small town here in Finland (something like 7000 inhabitants) only 6 miles from the town center and we basically had to fight to get an internet connection. At first none of the companies were willing to give us any kind of internet connection, they just said "You live too far away". After a few long calls to the managers one company gave us a crappy 256mpbs connection. We lived with that for 3 years from 2006-2009, at least now we have a decent wireless connection.

256 mbps ????? Really????

See, you guys are in Finland. For you, I'm sure it's VERY normal. But put this into perspective. 99% of the rest of the world is not leading an ultra-modern Scandinavian life

[XtreO]

Originally Posted by RestInPieces

Not at all over the top. I live in a small town here in Finland (something like 7000 inhabitants) only 6 miles from the town center and we basically had to fight to get an internet connection. At first none of the companies were willing to give us any kind of internet connection, they just said "You live too far away". After a few long calls to the managers one company gave us a crappy 256mpbs connection. We lived with that for 3 years from 2006-2009, at least now we have a decent wireless connection.

You mean 256 kbps I hope? I got 50 mbps in/out, and that is considered high for one household.

[TheVoiceless]

I heard somewhere on the radio that the US was going to do something similar. I really hope they do. We need some positive advancements these days. The benefits of doing this has so many advantages.

[sloasdaylight]

The internet is not a right, by any stretch of the imagination.

[vene-nemesis]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

The internet is not a right, by any stretch of the imagination.

Everyone has to be granted access to information.

[MatticusMania]

So what we're really being faced with is a whole new wave of Finnish trolls being released? Sweet! Get your Finn meme's ready guys! This is going to be huge!

[coolrunner989]

Originally Posted by vene-nemesis

Everyone has to be granted access to information.

This. It's not guaranteeing internet, just the affordable universal access to it. Whether or not you actually do or not is still dependent on you.

Sadly, I don't see this happening in the U.S. even though it should.

[XtreO]

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

So what we're really being faced with is a whole new wave of Finnish trolls being released? Sweet! Get your Finn meme's ready guys! This is going to be huge!

http://leekspin.com/

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by XtreO

http://leekspin.com/

Why am I so amused by this?