Finland is set to become the first country to give every citizen the right to access broadband services. It’s just announced a 1Mb minimum will apply from next July, ahead of a target of a 100Mb minimum by 2015.

According to the YLE news site, “some variation” will be allowed in areas where broadband is provided via mobile networks. That would likely mean the minimum download speed would be lowered in areas where mobile is a much more practical option than wired provision.

The target of 100Mb download speeds available to most homes is a longstanding policy of the Finnish government, with the original timetable calling for an action plan in 2012 to make sure it achieves the figure by 2015. The government had already planned an interim target of 1Mb to homes, but this week’s changes are designed to speed up the network expansion by making that target a mandatory figure.

The original funding plan for the expansion involved auctioning off the rights to radio frequencies and then making up any shortfall by levying fees on telecommunications firms. The government would also pay a credit to householders which can be used towards installing communications technology such as computers. It’s not known if the change of timetable will affect those funding plans.

The program certainly seems to be helping Finland’s performance in the communication stakes. It’s now ranked second only to the U.S. in a worldwide list of the most competitive nations for information technology.

While it appears Finland is the first country to make broadband provision mandatory, several other countries including the U.S. have made so-called ‘universal’ broadband an official target. The United Kingdom government plans to expand networks to bring a 2Mb speed to “virtually all” homes by 2012, with the money scheduled to come from a controversial tax on telephone line rentals.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 1:57 pm under Politics, Technology.

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