There is a stark difference between Finland and the UK. Our Nordic friends are treating broadband as essential to its infrastructure, whereas here in the UK, the highly contentious Digital Economy Act offers the potential for structures where people could, in theory, be cut off if they are judged to have broken copyright law.
The Lib Dem arm of today’s coalition government is taking steps to have the Act repealed, and it will be very interesting if they manage it. They are in favour of most of the act but are completely opposed to the parts that relate to the blocking of people's internet connections.
Under the law in Finland, telecomms providers are obliged to offer always-on high-speed internet connections to all citizens, with a minimum speed of at least 1 megabit per second. In the UK, the government is aiming at 2Mbps for 99% of the population by 2012 - but there's no law to back it.
We are now ranked 33rd in the world when it comes to broadband speed, with an average that is nearly five times slower than South Korea. Reminiscent of the 2010 World Cup then!
If the Liberal Democrats manage to get the act repealed they have stated that they will “"take it off the statue book replace it with something better”. Do you have any suggestions for them?
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