You may have read, right here at Discovery, that Finland's just passed a landmark law that gives all of its citizens (yes, even the ones who live in the middle of snow-covered forests miles from nowhere, or are sitting in saunas) the right to universal broadband (1MB) Internet access. As if that's not enough of a challenge to the country's telco providers, they're thinking of bumping that up to 10MB in the future. Obviously, someone thinks the Internet-driven knowledge economy is here to stay, at least in northern Europe. As part of my coverage for this week's Tech Podcast for PRI (the day job, as I call it), I had Cyrus Farivar call up (Skype up, actually) Suvi Linden, Finland's Minister of Communications. Here's what she had to say about the new law, and about the reasoning behind it:
By the way, I hear through the grapevine that Finland's neighbor Estonia (or E-stonia, as it likes to bill itself) is a wee bit jealous that the Finns beat them to it!
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