The Finland model: A chicken in every pot and Broadband in every den
For a democratic nation, Finland sure plays it like a socialist.
First they have arguably one of the best health care systems in the world. Then they throw in free day care. Sure they’re taxed heavily and the job market is described as “inflexible”, but all in all, the standard of living is pretty damn fine.
And to sweeten the pot, they’ve just made broadband internet a legal right.
From the Huffington Post:
Finland has just passed a law making access to broadband a legal right for Finnish citizens.
When the law goes into effect in July 2010, every person in Finland, which has a population of around 5.3 million, will have the guaranteed right to a one-megabit broadband connection, says the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
One megabit in 2010 may not sound like much, but the goal here is to insure internet access to everyone, and increase that speed to 100mbps by the time 2015 rolls around. In Toronto, the only place that’s available (to the general public, anyway) is in certain downtown condominiums, the developers of which have struck a deal with Telus in order to add value to the downtown lifestyle they’re selling. In Ontario at least, the next best thing is Rogers’ recently announced 50mbps service which will run you a prohibitive $150/month. Needless to say, 100mbps internet in Canada is very much a luxury as opposed to a “legal right”.
With the CRTC constantly at war with ISPs in an effort to regulate Internet in Canada, it seems like the Finnish model is one we can only dream of on this side of the pond. Canada is so far down on the global scale of cost-for-usage, it’s fair to say that we have a long list of thing we need to repair before we start conjuring up new legislation that will keep us in competition with forward-thinking systems like this one.
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