[embefuri]

This is what I called 1st world, we need to educate the famiLEE LEEgime about this.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/38414/

Broadband Access Becomes a Legal Right in Finland

By Pirjo Svensson
Epoch Times Staff Created: Jul 1, 2010 Last Updated: Jul 1, 2010
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Related articles: World > Europe
Computers at the press centre of the informal meeting of European Union Employment in Helsinki, Finland. Finland has become the world's first nation to make household access to broadband Internet a legal right. (Heikki Saukkomaa/Getty Images)

Finland has become the world's first nation to make household access to broadband Internet a legal right.

Under the new regulation, which came into effect on July 1, all Finnish citizens are guaranteed the right to a 1 mbps (megabits per second) Internet connection, and a 100 mbps connection by 2015.

The new regulations will require that over 99 percent of all permanent places of residence, businesses, and the public sector are no further than 1.2 miles from a fibreoptic or cable network.

Until now, the expansion of broadband access in Finland's rural areas has progressed slowly, according to Finnish media.

The Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications estimates that telecom operators will be able to construct 95 percent of the fast Internet connections on market terms.

To achieve the 99 percent coverage requirement, approximately 120,000 additional connections will need to be created, which comes at a price. Telecom operators will cover at least 34 percent of the those costs. The rest will be divided among the national government, the municipalities, and the European Union.

Consumers will then be able to obtain a connection from one of 26 telecommunications companies in the country. The Communications Regulatory Authority states that Internet access should be offered at an affordable price, which in most cases is around 30 to 40 euros (US$37-$50).

Juhapekka Ristola, director of the Communications Networks Unit under the Ministry of Communications told Swedish media that the government will soon be able to judge how well the nationwide Internet connection services are met since he expects that consumers will complain if they do not receive the service, or if the price is too high.

[embefuri]

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url.../78/28igk.html

芬蘭立法 公民有寬頻上網權

更新日期:2010/07/02 04:11
〔編譯管淑平／綜合報導〕七月一日起，芬蘭成為全球第一個將使用傳輸速度達每秒一百萬位元（Mbps）的寬頻上網，立法列為所有公民合法權利的國家。 Mbps的速度只是初步，芬蘭還打算在二○一五年前讓每位國民都能以每秒一億位元（100Mbps）的高速 上網。
芬 蘭已立法規定，電信公司有義務提供所有芬蘭人至少1Mbps的寬頻網路，七月一日起正式生效。芬蘭通訊部長 林登說，這項立法的立意是，「我們考慮了網路在 芬蘭人日常生活扮演的角色，網路服務不再只是娛樂」，「芬蘭向來致力於發展一個資訊社會，幾年前我們體認到 並非人人都能上網。」
據信芬蘭人 上網普及率已達九十六％，目前只有約四千戶家庭必須連上網路以遵循這項新法。相較之下，英國上網普及率是七 十三％，英國政府承諾二○一二年前讓民眾享有至 少2Mbps以上的上網速度，但並未如芬蘭以立法彰顯其實踐決心。芬蘭政府表示，希望在二○一五年能將該國 寬頻網路速度提升到至少100Mbps。
根據英國廣播公司（ＢＢＣ）今年稍早的一份民調，全球有將近五分之四的人認為，上網是基本權利 。
芬蘭立法將寬頻上網列為人人均可享有的合法權利，可能影響其他打算嚴厲對付網路非法檔案分享行為的國家。英 國和法國都有意以斷線或限制網路連線速度的方式，對付一再侵權下載或分享版權音樂的不法行徑。
芬蘭則採取較溫和作法。林登說，「我們將有一套政策，網路營運商會致函給非法分享檔案的用戶，但我們並不打 算予以斷線。」

[Machater]

I've never heard of anything more ridiculous in all my life!

[embefuri]

I've never heard of anything more ridiculous in all my life!

This rights means you can sue in court if your broadband get get off or disabled. Say by your landlord or your hotel. I think it also mean that you can make your ISP liable when your speed is lower than the legal minimum. Because your lawful rights became violated.



The concept is comparable with other minimum access protections, e.g. air; water; food; lights; wage; granted by law. e.g. min wage law.

This law also means parents may be violating laws when they banned their own children from using Internet. Unless legislation provided these exceptions.

There had been laws in other parts of Europe that ensure each family or home can get Internet, I think that is also policy that provided a minimum standard of Internet access to all citizens FOC.

In red dot there is lots of famiLEE LEEgime's essential citizens' services shifted to e-Services, e.g. your Singpass & CPF etc etc. Too many. Therefore, you are very handicapped as a citizen here when you are not online. To a certain extend, it is discrimination and deprivation or bully when you are prevented from getting online. A legal protection for this rights is necessary.

One day, you may not be able to vote without getting online. Then your voting rights is forfeited when you got prevented to access Internet.

May be that is the case in Finland, I don't know.

As it is in red dot, your only realistic freedom of expression & free-speech is on Internet, where famiLEE LEEgime gets limited ability to stop you. If your access to Internet is taken away, your rights to free-speech and freedom of expression is also screwed.

Look at it this way Sam. This law assured your forum members a protection, that they can always come to your forum to get some free-speech. But we can fucking sue you when your SQL database fucked up and we can not read nor post.

[embefuri]

These days the important of Internet is quite extreme. Without Internet you can be affected in too many ways, e.g. learning / education; social; friendship; courtship; family; works / career / employment. Don't underestimate the important of one's legal rights to have Internet access.

[SaLifHoq]

Nothing to do with freedom of speech etc. Its to speed up the infrastructure building. It just means that the minimum speed at that price.

It has been done for milk, water, electricity and even for onions, garlic, and even liqour for the poor man around the world. Usually for essentials. It also no different when the requirement for catalytic convertors came in.

When the license for the frequency was sold, they did not stipulate like they are doing now. So this has to be done.

[lollypop]

UY,

You are reading too much into the law. If that is what the Fins ment, I'll go jump off the deepest fjord.

This rights means you can sue in court if your broadband get get off or disabled. Say by your landlord or your hotel. I think it also mean that you can make your ISP liable when your speed is lower than the legal minimum. Because your lawful rights became violated.



This law also means parents may be violating laws when they banned their own children from using Internet. Unless legislation provided these exceptions.


One day, you may not be able to vote without getting online. Then your voting rights is forfeited when you got prevented to access Internet.

If your access to Internet is taken away, your rights to free-speech and freedom of expression is also screwed.

Look at it this way Sam. This law assured your forum members a protection, that they can always come to your forum to get some free-speech. But we can fucking sue you when your SQL database fucked up and we can not read nor post.

[embefuri]

UY,

You are reading too much into the law. If that is what the Fins ment, I'll go jump off the deepest fjord.

The Finis minister in charge of this ministry said their policy is NOT to disconnect any citizen even if they were found to be in violation of illegal upload / download. Other EU nations like French may want to disconnect those in legal violation of P2P sharing of copyrighted music etc.

That means even those who are found breaking laws on-line will not be punished by disconnections from Internet. In US I am aware that judges bans convicted hackers from accessing Internet, because there is no legal rights protection. People can not be punished by depriving of Internet access if this was ban by law.

That means their law protects legal rights of their citizens to be able to get on-line.

[embefuri]

Yes not FOC.

That means you have the legal rights to access but you still have to pay. Seems that policy protect also that the price will not exceed a stated limit, for the legally specified speed levels.

The law did not say it was meant to be protecting free-speech, but that was how I perceived it to be.

I agree that some laws were made to compel infrastructure development. E.g. in some 1st world nations they had since early 2000s, legislated to abolish analog broadcasting and phase out any broadcasters' analog license, to compel national broadcast infrastructures to be converted to digital by a legislated year. For USA it was 2009 for TV & Cables & Satellites. Forgot which year was Australia already.

The next classic thing I foresee to be abolished is fix-line telephone system, which had been largely replaced by cellphone or GSM & Internet. There are still many huge telephone exchanges in our red dot to facilitate fix-line telephone. There are millions of KM of copper wires undergound for that too. Huge wastage of resources. We already have Open-Net fiber. We have CATV (SCV). We have GSM & IP-telephones, we have email, we can fax via IP / Internet. We should kick out fix-lines, it is old technology since Mr. Bell's invention in 1864 one and half century ago.

Singapore will be an ideal place in this world to be the 1st to rid fix-line. Giving famiLEE LEEgime another idea to be world 1st . Get rid of these telephone exchanges, only keep fibre & broadband & mobile systems. Recycle these millions of kilo-meters of copper wires - there must be a million ton of them!

[SaLifHoq]

Why are you so blur. Nobody is barred or banned from getting on-line. They are raising the standards by increasing the minimum speed and making it affordable at that higher speed.

Even a simple economic measure to raise the quality of life is a french revolution for you.

Even a fucking traffic jam at Bukit Timah and suddenly its a Long March for you.

That means their law protects legal rights of their citizens to be able to get on-line.

[embefuri]

Why are you so blur. Nobody is barred or banned from getting on-line. They are raising the standards by increasing the minimum speed and making it affordable at that higher speed.

Even a simple economic measure to raise the quality of life is a french revolution for you.

Even a fucking traffic jam at Bukit Timah and suddenly its a Long March for you.

It is not that anyone had been ban, it is that law now stated that this can not be banned. It is a BASIC RIGHT and MUST NOT BE DEPRIVED.

The BIG DIFF between this and other normal infrastructure upgrade (like you were referring) is that IT ISN’T OPTIONAL, but COMPULSORY and one will be in violation of law to deprive any others to have this access. What you are referring to is only alike Ass Loong Son's OpenNet project, which is non-compulsory nature, and you will not be deem as violating law for not being provided with OpenNet. Basic Rights is something that you can uphold in a court. E.g. apply for an order to compel ISP to give that to you, and failing so they be punished for breaking this law.

Basic Rights for other provisions include food & water.

E.g. employer sending employees to be stationed at an out-post such as mountains say for few weeks must arrange for employees to have food & water. Otherwise becomes liable to be sued.

Read the news!


http://www.torontosun.com/news/world.../14598026.html

News World


Internet now 'basic right' for Finns

By QMI Agency
Last Updated: July 3, 2010 12:07pm



Finland has become the first nation in the world to make access to broadband Internet a "basic right" of its citizens. Regulations came into effect Thursday requiring Finland's 26 telecom operators to provide "every permanent residence and office building" in the country with access to an Internet connection with a downstream rate of at least 1 Megabit per second (Mbit/s).
"A reasonably priced and high-quality broadband connection will be everyone's basic right," Finnish Communications Minister Suvi Linden said in a statement.
"It is our understanding that we have become the first in the world to have made broadband a basic right," ministry spokesman Olli-Pekka Rantala said.
Finns are already one of the world's most hardwired populations with an estimated 99% of all households already having broadband Internet service of at least 1Mbit/sec.
The BBC reported only 4,000 more Finnish residences have to be connected to fully wire the country of 5.3 million people.
The service requirement does not apply to seasonal residences.
The Finnish government has also launched a project to connect all Finns to the Internet with fast fibre-optic or cable networks by 2015.










http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...pKRtyymPHxgLsA

As world first, Finland makes broadband service basic right
(AFP) – 2 days ago
HELSINKI — Finland on Thursday became the first country in the world to make access to a broadband service a basic right, ensuring that a high-speed Internet connection is available to all Finns, a government official said.
"Today the universal service obligation concerning Internet access of one Megabit per second (Mbit/s) has entered into force," Olli-Pekka Rantala of the communications networks unit at the ministry of transport and communications said.
"It is our understanding that we have become the first in the world to have made broadband a basic right," he added.
The tech-savvy Nordic country amended its communications market act last year to make sufficient Internet access a universal service, such as the telephone and postal services.
It was later determined by the ministry of communications "that what is meant by sufficient Internet access ... is one Megabit per second." Rantala said.
Finnish Communications Minister Suvi Linden called the new mandatory broadband regulation "one of the government's most significant achievements in regional policy."
"I'm proud of it," she said in a statement. "I hope that people will make use of the opportunity and turn to telecom operators in the area they live."
From July 1, service providers in Finland are thus obligated to provide a one Mbit/s connection to all Finnish households, regardless of their location.
The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) was in charge of designating universal service providers for areas where a high speed connection was not previously available.
The service obligation does not apply to summer residences, FICORA said on its website.
It added the price of an Internet connection provided by a universal service provider "must be reasonable," but that the provider could take into consideration "the costs incurred from the production of the service."
The Finnish government has also launched a project to connect all Finns to the Internet with fast fibre-optic or cable networks by 2015.
"The objective of the project is that nearly all (more than 99 percent of the) permanent places of residence and places of business and public administration are no further than two kilometres from a 100 Mbit/s fibre-optic cable network," FICORA said.




http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38038917...h_and_gadgets/

High-speed Internet now a right ... in Finland

New law says every citizen entitled to fast wired connection








Finland is now the first country in the world where every citizen is entitled to high-speed Internet connection, starting today. A similar plan for the United States faces hurdles and will likely take years to come to fruition.
As of July 1, "every Finn will have the right to access to a 1 megabit per second broadband connection," with a goal of a 100 mbps connection by 2015, according to the BBC.
"Internet services are no longer just for entertainment," Finland's communication minister Suvi Linden told the BBC. "Finland has worked hard to develop an information society and a couple of years ago we realised not everyone had access."
"Everyone," in this case, is not a big number, with an estimated 4,000 homes that will need the faster wired connection. The country has a population of about 5.2 million, according to the CIA World Factbook.
The Nordic country is among those that get perhaps six hours of daylight during winter months, making a communication resource like the Internet more important to staying sane and connected during such dreary periods.
By 2015, Finland aims to have all Finns connected to the Internet via fiber-optic or cable networks.
In the United States, a proposed National Broadband Plan would make high-speed Internet access available to individuals who need it, as well as to certain health care providers, over the next decade.
In 2009, the average Internet download speed in the United States was 5.1 megabits per second and the average upload speed was 1.1 mbps, according to Speed Matters, a project of the Communications Workers of America.
Efforts are also underway to expand wireless broadband for devices like smart phones and laptops, being used by more Americans. On Monday, President Barack Obama endorsed plans by Federal Communications Commission regulators to free up 500 megahertz of wireless spectrum over the next 10 years to meet the demand.
Some estimates, according to the Associated Press , suggest the next five years will see an increase in wireless data of between 20 to 45 times 2009 levels, reflecting the burgeoning use of wireless devices.
In Britain, the BBC said, the government aims to provide everyone with a "minimum 2 Mbps broadband connection by 2012 but it is a commitment rather than a legally binding ruling."

[lollypop]

UY,

Be that as it may, not many countries will be able to enforce or legislate the way Finland has done. Finland has produced the world's number one telecom company Nokia and it is no accident. Finnish cities and towns are separated by vast distances of mountainous terrain and deep fjiords. Necessity being the Mother of Invention, it has led to the rapid rise of cellular communications technology to keep the country connected for economic and governance reasons. The Fins are one of the most innovative people in the world.

Thus these economic needs and political will must make basic rights sound more credible.

[SaLifHoq]

Who was talking about banning . Certainly not he Finns. Who is talking about depriving the Finns access. Certainly not the Finns. Don't be overly dramatic. As I said before, it legislated minimum speed. A higher quality of service. If you are suggesting that the Finns did that as began to sense danger, that society was going to be deprived of access or that a ban was imminent, you are off the mark.

You are beginning to sound like the old man who constantly claims that he does this and that for the sake of the country and to save the country. Which is all rubbish. If he did not live, our growth might not have been spectacular, but it would not have been oppressive. As know he like you like to draw dramatic conclusions of imminent danger to frighten society.

It is not that anyone had been ban, it is that law now stated that this can not be banned. It is a BASIC RIGHT and MUST NOT BE DEPRIVED.

The BIG DIFF between this and other normal infrastructure upgrade (like you were referring) is that IT ISN’T OPTIONAL, but COMPULSORY and one will be in violation of law to deprive any others to have this access. "

[lollypop]

Haha..well put. Describes the Old man to a T.

.....the old man who constantly claims that he does this and that for the sake of the country and to save the country. Which is all rubbish. If he did not live, our growth might not have been spectacular, but it would not have been oppressive. As know he like you like to draw dramatic conclusions of imminent danger to frighten society.

[SaLifHoq]

Old man constantly thrives on using things like racial riots and the more recent incident involved NMP Viswa Sadasivan. He also successfully created the impression that without him Singapore would have disappeared into thin air.

People failed to realise that Singapore was a thriving entrepot and ahead of the region well before he was born. It had natural assets for being at the crossroads and there was momentum created by Raffles. There was riots between teochews and the hokkeins and they fixed it.

Old man gives the impression that he created a disorderly society with no rules and regulations and mayhem was order of the day. That rubbish.

Then comes this clown who thinks that internet access was going to be banned and the danger was averted by the timely itnroduction of the new law. No wonder none of the opposition parties want anything to do with him except for Chee. He makes all of us who point out flaws in the establishment as idiots.

[embefuri]

Can you then rather view this from another perspective that legislated protection of Basic Rights had been Expanded to Internet Access (with various stated speeds) for Finland, which is the 1st in the world.

Basic Rights alike access to food and water is something that is not legally removable from any one even in prison. This time we are seeing Finland expanding this scope into Internet access.

Please don't become too distracted by these legislated (minimum) speed figures. 1Mbps is very little to be a figure for Internet access speed, I am sure they can get normally much higher e.g. 12Mbps there in EU. They are just not specifying the higher end as the legal minimum, just to ensure that such law does not become too unreasonable or impossible at times to be complied.

This isn't a law aimed to improve the national Internet speed, otherwise it would had been introduced as an ISP License Requirement that min user access speed can not drop below 1Mbps, or else ISPs' license conditions would be violated, and may be license be suspended / canceled. This is not the case now. This is from the angle of protecting citizens basic rights that everyone should have the legal rights to get access to Internet at that specified minimum speed. Legal rights become an asset useful in court cases.

[lollypop]

Finland is a rather non litigatious society, so having a basic right doesnt have to mean you have to sue for it if you dont get it. I see it as a govt promise, the way PAP guarantees 90% pop live in HDB, or that we are all wired by year xxxx.

[embefuri]

Finland is a rather non litigatious society, so having a basic right doesnt have to mean you have to sue for it if you dont get it. I see it as a govt promise, the way PAP guarantees 90% pop live in HDB, or that we are all wired by year xxxx.

Yes agreed.

Unlike the US, where it is their culture to sue sue sue.

But what about old dog thief LKy & his political masturbations .

[SaLifHoq]

Don't be an alarmist. There is no fire. This how good society progresses thru raising standards. Nothing to do with basic right , freedom of speech etc.

There is no indication that online access will be removed. You like the PAP and scaremongering when there is nothing to it.

You are making a fool of yourself. We are talking about the Finns and Finland not China or North Korea.

Can you then rather view this from another perspective that legislated protection of Basic Rights had been Expanded to Internet Access (with various stated speeds) for Finland, which is the 1st in the world.

Basic Rights alike access to food and water is something that is not legally removable from any one even in prison. This time we are seeing Finland expanding this scope into Internet access.

[embefuri]

Don't be an alarmist. There is no fire. This how good society progresses thru raising standards. Nothing to do with basic right , freedom of speech etc.

There is no indication that online access will be removed. You like the PAP and scaremongering when there is nothing to it.

You are making a fool of yourself. We are talking about the Finns and Finland not China or North Korea.

I am not raising any alarm indeed. Just merely hypothetically illustrating the effects of this new example setting law.