Tech & Biz

Finland To Make Broadband Internet Access a Legal Right

by Jon Azpiri | October 14, 2009 at 12:23 pm

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Finland has become the first country to make broadband internet access a legal right. The Scandinavian country's Ministry of Transport is practicing what it preaches by making 1-megabit broadband access available to Finland's 5 million citizens starting next summer. Finland also plans to make a 100Mb broadband connection available to everyone by 2015.

Earlier this year, France became the first country to declare internet access a human right, but it appears that Finland is closer to putting that ideal into practice. There are some questions about just what Finland means by broadband access.

But Finland's definition of "access" to broadband is a little fuzzy. According to the Helsinki Times when it reported the 100Mb target last year, the Finnish government said that no household "would be farther than 2 kilometers from a connection capable of delivering broadband Internet with a capacity of at least 100 megabits of data a second." It did say, though, that "about 2,000 (households) in far-flung corners of the country" wouldn't be included. Ostensibly, Finland plans to keep that same distribution when its 1Mb broadband access is implemented.