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"The Finnish government has done what no other nation has; it has made broadband Internet access a guaranteed legal right of its citizens. According to Finnish news site YLE, The Ministry of Transport and Communications says everyone in the country will be entitled to a guaranteed 1 Mbit connection by next July. This is fascinating, but it's really only half the story.
The real news is that the country considers this just a preliminary stepping stone to a 100 Mbit service guarantee by the end of 2015. According to the story, "Some variation will be allowed, if connectivity can be arranged through mobile phone networks."
Granted, Finland's population is more like a very large city than a country as big as the U.S. There are 5.3 million people residing in Finland, mostly in the south. This would place the country about 30th in the ranking of world cities by population, but it still makes it bigger than any U.S. city save New York. Which begs the question - if Finland can do this, why can't more major U.S. cities?"
Source:http://www.pcworld.com/article/173691/finland_makes_broadband_a_legal_right.html
I always thougth Sweden would be the first countrie to do this.
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is it gonna be free? or will you have to pay some broadband tax?
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On October 15 2009 20:30 29 fps wrote:
is it gonna be free? or will you have to pay some broadband tax?
nothing provided by the government is ever really free ^^;;
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Legal rights in at least Scandinavia usually means that it's free and payed for by taxes. Like healthcare, School, Fire and Police department etc.
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why are northern european countries so fucking awesome? im seriously considering moving there later in life. although the weather is kinda dreary, but I kinda like that.
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On October 15 2009 20:24 Integra wrote:
Granted, Finland's population is more like a very large city than a country as big as the U.S. There are 5.3 million people residing in Finland, mostly in the south. This would place the country about 30th in the ranking of world cities by population, but it still makes it bigger than any U.S. city save New York. Which begs the question - if Finland can do this, why can't more major U.S. cities?
While I suppose this is a legitimate concern for major US cities, the fact of the matter here is that Finland is able to call upon its national resources in this endeavor, whereas state or city budgets in the US can't reasonably compensate for this kind of major restructuring. While it is funded by taxes, the US seems to have a nasty problem with accepting higher taxation rates even though it is very common in Europe. Even if they could, the money would be much better utilized in aiding the public education or police systems.
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There are pros and cons with everything Iazz 
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That's great but our state/cities have already pretty much laid very cheap 100mbit throughout most of the country already, hah.
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Sanya12364 Posts
"Free" as in just pay more in taxes. Of course the majority of US cities can afford to give its residents broadband. The better question is should they.
By doing so:
Government of Finland is setting priority of getting broadband internet for its citizens. It's now an absolute must regardless of what the citizens really though about getting broadband.
Government of Finland is also setting up different levels of wealth transfers, it's either from citizens to the broadband companies or from one citizen to another or a combination of both.
Government of Finland is laying the groundwork for its broadband industry to be insensitive to market demands and replacing it with political demands. The industry won't scale up basic speeds according to capacity and needs. Instead, they will wait for the government bureaucracy to set the standards for them. The government is now footing most of the bill.
It remains to be see what they mean by broadband and how much demand the people of Finland will have in excess of the government guarantee. Maybe in ten years, the government guarantee will be come all but meaningless when demand completely outstrips government guidelines. Then the people of Finland will just be stuck with a stupid tax.
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Another problem that US has in comparision is how the internet structure looks like and how much it costs to make vs how it is here, and I assume in finland.
Afaik the digging is alot harder to go through with in alot of the parts of USA, and with the low tax rates and higher prices to make the internet infrastructure possible it's never going to happen.
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Dude, congratulations!
Sweden currently has the world's 3rd best broadband distribution (after Japan and South Korea), but we'll slip if we don't get another injection like this. I'm real jealous of you guys!
Keep pushing the market!
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On October 15 2009 20:48 TanGeng wrote:
"Free" as in just pay more in taxes. Of course the majority of US cities can afford to give its residents broadband. The better question is should they.
This is just wrong, the taxes doesnt rise, it's a question of where they put their tax money at. Seeing as this is a project aiming to do good in the future, eventually this will help in other areas aswell.
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Sanya12364 Posts
On October 15 2009 20:48 Kyuki wrote:
Another problem that US has in comparision is how the internet structure looks like and how much it costs to make vs how it is here, and I assume in finland.
Afaik the digging is alot harder to go through with in alot of the parts of USA, and with the low tax rates and higher prices to make the internet infrastructure possible it's never going to happen.
Most of the cities and local areas have well connected media companies holding monopoly rights over infrastructure for certain types of media distribution. One of the best things that's happened in the US is that telephone companies and cable tv companies have started competing with each other over telephone, digital tv, and broadband services. The prices for really high broadband has come down quite a lot. It just looks like there's plenty of excess capacity.
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Sanya12364 Posts
On October 15 2009 20:50 Kyuki wrote:Show nested quote +On October 15 2009 20:48 TanGeng wrote:
"Free" as in just pay more in taxes. Of course the majority of US cities can afford to give its residents broadband. The better question is should they. This is just wrong, the taxes doesnt rise, it's a question of where they put their tax money at. Seeing as this is a project aiming to do good in the future, eventually this will help in other areas aswell.
Sure it does. It's only a matter of when. When the government spends the money. It can either raise taxes now, or raise them later. They can also cut spending somewhere else but that's an independent action with the effect of lowering taxes.
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On October 15 2009 20:49 GinNtoniC wrote:
Dude, congratulations!
Sweden currently has the world's 3rd best broadband distribution (after Japan and South Korea), but we'll slip if we don't get another injection like this. I'm real jealous of you guys!
Keep pushing the market!
I don't understand why Sweden hasn't done this as well, The IT growth in Sweden is on pair with the leading countries when it comes to IT structure, we could probably pull it off withinn three years without too much problems.
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Sanya12364 Posts
On October 15 2009 20:56 Integra wrote:Show nested quote +On October 15 2009 20:49 GinNtoniC wrote:
Dude, congratulations!
Sweden currently has the world's 3rd best broadband distribution (after Japan and South Korea), but we'll slip if we don't get another injection like this. I'm real jealous of you guys!
Keep pushing the market! I don't understand why Sweden hasn't done this as well, The IT growth in Sweden is on pair with the leading countries when it comes to IT structure, we could probably pull it off withinn three years without too much problems.
You folks in Sweden sound like you're managing just fine without a law mandating broadband. Why meddle with a working system?
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On October 15 2009 20:58 TanGeng wrote:Show nested quote +On October 15 2009 20:56 Integra wrote:On October 15 2009 20:49 GinNtoniC wrote:
Dude, congratulations!
Sweden currently has the world's 3rd best broadband distribution (after Japan and South Korea), but we'll slip if we don't get another injection like this. I'm real jealous of you guys!
Keep pushing the market! I don't understand why Sweden hasn't done this as well, The IT growth in Sweden is on pair with the leading countries when it comes to IT structure, we could probably pull it off withinn three years without too much problems. You folks in Sweden sound like you're managing just fine without a law mandating broadband. Why meddle with a working system?
The problem is "fine" if it was a legal right it would go up to excellent.
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You're all lucky 
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Zurich15358 Posts
Afaik Lithuania already has this. This is overdue in so many western countries. If we generally accept that the "real world" infrastructure should be paid for with tax money, why not the internet infrastructure.
More importantly though, this gives citizens a right to sue for internet access. In many ways, you cannot take part in today's society anymore without having internet access. And this trend will continue. Soon you won't be able to handle daily financial, professional or administrative tasks without internet access. It is great to see that some countries take the right direction, and make internet access a citizen's right.
Unfortunately there are also countries like France or recently Germany that take to opposite route and discuss or actually implement laws that make it possible to ban people from the internet.
Whether access will be paid for fully or in parts or not at all by taxes is not important compared to allowing the people to enforce their right to access the internet.
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EPT
