Yes that’s right, no matter where you live in Finland, even if it is in the most remote furthest distant part of the country, you are going to be legally entitled to a minimum connection speed of one megabit per second.
The new law put in place by the Finnish government and which takes effect from July 2010, also states that this rather slow speed, but a connection nevertheless, will have to rise to at least 100 megabits per second by the year 2015.
What this means is that Finland is the first country on the planet to make broadband a legal right and to stipulate exactly what the minimum connection speeds should be.
Ok so France have come out and said that access to the internet is a human right but as yet they haven’t actually done anything about it.
Britain has made an effort of sorts and is aiming for universal internet access within the next three years although many doubt that this can actually be achieved.
Prince Charles is even having his say on the matter “Access to the internet is increasingly becoming a necessity,” he recently wrote in The Daily Telegraph and “The lack of access to high speed broadband is putting many of those who work in rural communities at a severe disadvantage.”
Apparently the Finnish government said the law was aimed at improving the provision of broadband in rural areas, so at least they’re actively doing something about it and it isn’t just all talk.
“We think [the internet is] something you cannot live without in modern society,” said Laura Vikkonen, a spokesman for the ministry, reported the Daily Telegraph.
“Like banking services or water or electricity, you need an internet connection”
Well of course, I think most of us would be inclined to agree, more and more services and facilities and all sorts of application forms are now being placed online by governments and basically without an internet connection many people are pretty stuck.
Despite the fact that Finland is relatively small country, with a population of only just over 5 million people, it is already pretty advanced, as far as internet connections are concerned anyway, as most of the population already have internet access.
This means that it isn’t too much of a jump to extend that provision another 5 percent or so to make sure that there is universal internet access in Finland.
Yep Finland gets the thumbs up from me.
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An internet connection is no more a legal right than TV Cable service or telephone service. Amazingly enough, people have lived for a long time without the internet. It’s a convenience, not a necessity, no matter how much easier it does make life.
The chief difficulty with making it a “right” is that someone has to pay for it. You’re confiscating money from people productive enough to pay for their own internet, at gunpoint, and spending it on people who either don’t need it or aren’t productive enough to pay for it. Giving people rights like this only grows – soon you’ll have a right to a computer, and to a cell phone, etc. Whatever happened to responsibility for self?