Broadband Internet A Legal Right In Finland – When Will India Have One?
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(With inputs by Abhishek Kapoor)
In the era of stringent Tweeting bans compared to performance drug tests, this news will not come as a shock to many. An unshakable belief in something without need for a proof or evidence could be the importance of internet in each one’s life today. With India working up their internet penetration in the rural areas, it would achieve 20 million broadband users by 2010. Now we are at the end of 2009 and the TRAI latest numbers suggest that broadband penetration in India has just about managed to reach 6.8 million subscribers.
Even countries of the European Union seem to be deeming high-speed internet as a vital human right. Recently in news, Finland legally mandated fast internet access to all it’s citizens and is the first to do so. Even the United Nations have okayed this particular move, where a universal service should be every citizen’s right. The minimum mandatory speed in Finland currently needs to be 1 megabit per second, but they aim for 100 megabit per second by 2015 for 5.2 million citizens. “We think the internet is something you cannot live without in modern society. Like banking services or water or electricity, you need an internet connection. Universal service is every citizen’s subjective right,” Transport and Communications ministry spokesman Laura Vikkonen said.
Countries, such as France, have declared the concept of guaranteed web access a “human right”, Finland is the first nation to recognize this in law. The British government and internet stakeholders will be keeping a close eye on Finland’s plans. In the recent Digital Britain report, the government set a target of universal internet access of speeds of at least two megabits per second by 2012, says a Telegraph report.
When will fast Internet access be a legal right in India?
CII aiming for 214 million connections by 2014 i.e. in the next 5 years, is a big ask according to WATBlog’s write up lately. The Government has approved projects connecting 20,000 colleges and 5,000 R&D institutions via broadband in India. Demanding high-speed internet as a legal right at this moment doesn’t look quite executable, while companies continue taking initiatives to strengthen the country’s internet exposure.
If we dig a bit deeper into the present situation of internet connectivity in Finland, this announcement looks like a mere formality to upgrade the internet infrastructure in Finland to the next level. Already about 95% of the Finnish population has some or the other way to connect to the internet. The remaining population lives in far flung rural areas of Finland. According to CNET, those areas are not covered by this law.
Presently we are unable to visualize a similar law in India, even in the next 10 years. A country’s 100% population should have proper education to make use of internet first, after which such laws can be thought about. Amen!
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Right after we have food rights, clothes rights, home rights, electricity rights etc
man I think this is great! I’ll be glad when America has one. I do know they talked about this in Chicago not too long ago. Was a good debate on the subject. One day!
-Guary Lawrence Nicholson