Earlier today Robin Wauters posted a very interesting item on TechCrunch.
Finland is the first country in the world to mandate a 1 megabit connection as of July 2010, and a whopping 100 Mb connection by 2015. That is quite impressive, and a giant step in the right direction.
Society is going to move more and more into an online world, and if people are left out, we will have to face a society where you have those that are online, and those that fall back. Going forward a broadband connection should be available to everybody, either at reasonable prices, or maybe even free?
Now all that we need is affordable computers for all. Who will be building those? And what would change in the world if all countries followed Finland’s example?
October 14, 2009 at 5:56 pm |
What does it mean to “mandate a 1 megabit connection”? Does it mean that the ISPs will be fined for selling connections slower than that at lower prices. Or do they have to provide those connections to every corner of the country that someone might choose to live in regardless of the burden of cost to the ISP? Or is the government simply nationalizing the ISPs and providing the internet themselves?
It’s an exciting headline, but I still have yet to read any description of what it actually means.
October 14, 2009 at 5:59 pm |
That is something that is not known yet I suppose. All I could find was this link with the announcement. It is reasonable to assume that there will be lots of things to be dealt with…
http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/10/1mb_broadband_access_becomes_legal_right_1080940.html
October 15, 2009 at 6:17 pm |
I wonder how well these “free” connections will work when the people who actually have to pay for all these social mandates finally collapse under the tax and debt burden, and we are driven back into the dark ages. Good luck with your 100Mb connection when the electricity stops flowing.
But who cares! We are so much more advanced in our mental capacities than the great civilizations of the past! I mean, this is 2009. Our brains HAVE GOT TO BE better than those they were producing at the time Rome collapsed, right? Our pride is leading to our destruction.
October 16, 2009 at 4:03 pm |
[...] TechCrunch and Mashable Effect On Wednesday this week I blogged about Finland being the first country to mandate a broadband line for every citizen. This post was [...]
October 18, 2009 at 11:37 am |
Greetings from Finland.
It seems to go like this. Internet will not be free for anyone here. ISPs have to make sure that everyone is able to buy at least that 1Mb connection.
And ISP doesn’t have to get the connection all the way to the homes, people might need to buy the cables for few kilometers.
There are areas where it will not be financially feasible, but that’s where our nation helps a bit with funding.