Economics 1/7/10: Finland - Broadband access is a universal right

An interesting follow up to our Digital Economy Rankings 2010 released jointly by EIU and IBM's Institute for Business Value earlier this week (see here for global results and here for detailed data on Ireland).

Finland - ranked 4th in the world this year by DER2010 - has just announced that its residents will have the legal right to broadband access. A law passed in October 2009 came into force today requiring all telecomms providers to offer 24/7-on high-speed internet connections to all of the country's 5.3 million residents. A minimum speed of at least 1 megabit per second must be guaranteed.

For comparison,

Finland achieved the following scores in Connectivity and Technology Infrastructure category (relating to quality and supply of broadband):

• Overall Connectivity & Technology Infrastructure score = 8.0/10.0
• Broadband penetration = 7.0
• Broadband quality = 1.0
• Broadband affordability = 9.0
• Internet user penetration = 9.0
• International internet bandwidth = 10.0
• Internet security = 10.0

In comparison, Ireland scores, relating to broadband) in this category were:

• Overall Connectivity & Technology Infrastructure score = 7.20/10.0
• Broadband penetration = 5.0
• Broadband quality = 1.0
• Broadband affordability = 9.0
• Internet user penetration = 7.0
• International internet bandwidth = 10.0
• Internet security = 10.0

Spot the difference?