Finland was the first country to make broadband connection a legal right. The law came into action on July 1st and it stipulates that every citizen has a right to an Internet connection of at least 1 Mbps.
The new law was clubbed in 2009 and didn’t pass by unnoticed by other countries, where Spain made a similar decision in November 2009.
The Finnish law requires that the bandwidth will be at least 1 Mbps, but also that the cost has to be reasonable, I.e between 30-40 euro per month.
In December 2009 Finland had 26.7% broadband users, while 97% of the population of Finland already have broadband Internet access. But from July 1st the remaining part of the population will get access, something that the 26 phone operators will make sure comes through.
In 2015 the new law will level up and give every person the right to 100Mbps broadband, something we hope more countries do.
