Quote :

"Story Highlights Providers will need to supply connection speeds of at least 1 megabit per second But Finland is aiming for speeds that are 100 times faster 95 percent of Finnish population have some sort of Internet access The law is designed to bring the Web to rural areas"

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/15/finland.internet.rights/index.html

Also notes that the US is the only industrialized nation without a policy to promote high-speed broad-band. I understand a lot of that may be due to the size of the country, in that the infrastructure to support broadband in the most rural areas isn't feasible/cost-effective for companies currently.

I could see this is inhibiting the education of people in rural areas though, I think with access comes ability to learn new things, about new places and further develop.

Thoughts on having fast internet as a legal right?

10/15/2009 8:54:56 AM

Are you saying that before the internet, people weren't able to get an education?

10/15/2009 9:06:31 AM

Time Warner Cable Brings 4G Wireless to North Carolina with Fastest Wireless Speeds Available
Wed Oct 14, 2009

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS144679+14-Oct-2009+BW20091014

10/15/2009 9:09:23 AM

Not at all.

I do think that as other countries make information/education more accessible through things like high-speed internet, it's possible that our rural populations that don't have that access could put us behind in the future.

10/15/2009 9:10:50 AM

And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot catv line
And a country boy can survive

10/15/2009 9:11:03 AM

Anyone try to correlate divorce rates with Internet access?

10/15/2009 9:15:57 AM

Quote :

"Thoughts on having fast internet as a legal right?"

Bad Idea. We're starting to get to the point where everything is being redefined as a "right" to justify demanding it from the government. Where does it stop? Are we entitled to free transportation? A free college degree? free sneakers?


High speed internet via satellite internet is already available in rural areas. For using the web it's not bad at all. It would suck for gaming or VoIP though.

As far as access to information, it's as good as wireline broadband.

10/15/2009 9:16:04 AM

Quote :

"I could see this is inhibiting the education of people in rural areas though, I think with access comes ability to learn new things, about new places and further develop."

If high speed internet was made available in every village and farm, just like anywhere else, >90% of the people would use it for uneducational entertainment (youtube, facebook, chatting, craiglist, gaming, porn, etc).

10/15/2009 10:34:24 AM

If you think about it, you kind of HAVE to be able to read somewhat to actually use the internet, so if everyone had internet accesss, I bet the literacy rate would go up.

10/15/2009 10:46:48 AM

Quote :

"so if everyone had internet accesss, I bet the literacy rate would go up."

perhaps you haven't seen the effect that the internet has had on how the generation who's entering college now communicates.

many of them dont really remember a time without social interaction via texting and the internet.

or take a gander at the i can haz cheezeburger memes

10/15/2009 11:00:52 AM

what's your point?

10/15/2009 11:57:01 AM

Quote :

"you kind of HAVE to be able to read somewhat to actually use the internet, so if everyone had internet accesss, I bet the literacy rate would go up."

um, cart before horse much?

10/15/2009 12:37:02 PM

helloooo socialism..."o but i worked and EARNED THE INTERNET how dare you give it to some lazy people for free?

Quote :

"Also notes that the US is the only industrialized nation without a policy to promote high-speed broad-band. I understand a lot of that may be due to the..."

the same right-winged anarachist radicals that think government should allow its people to die on the street?

10/15/2009 1:39:40 PM

Quote :

"Bad Idea. We're starting to get to the point where everything is being redefined as a "right" to justify demanding it from the government. Where does it stop? .... A free college degree?"

Yea, what a horrifying dystopia that would be!

10/16/2009 6:53:06 AM

Quote :

"I do think that as other countries make information/education more accessible through things like high-speed internet, it's possible that our rural populations that don't have that access could put us behind in the future."

I wouldn't worry too much. Most kids in Japan have no idea how to use a search engine or Microsoft Office and they're doing okay.

^ hahaha you read my mind.

[Edited on October 16, 2009 at 8:02 AM. Reason : .]

10/16/2009 7:59:44 AM

Quote :

"Yea, what a horrifying dystopia that would be!"

So you don't believe there should be standards for admission to a university? Anyone with a pulse should be granted admission to a university?

10/16/2009 9:11:07 AM

Fill in the blank with the issue du jour, have fun!

"Other people who are less fortunate than I am having government mandated _____ is SOCIALISM, plain and simple!"

10/16/2009 9:13:08 AM

My name is Matt Gronke, and I live in a fairy tale land where money and candy just fall out of the sky and fairies flutter around turning turds into gold!

10/16/2009 9:37:42 AM

That's what taxes are for, sir.

10/16/2009 9:39:35 AM

I just came in here to say that services (ie, internet service, health care, etc) != rights

10/16/2009 9:57:09 AM

I'd say we already have better rural coverage than a lot of other countries. While my in-laws live in rural area for Europe, about 4 miles as the crow files out of a major city (Gorozika, Muxika, Spain) they can't get even decent dial up service, while I (who live in the middle of nowhere) can get 6Mbs DSL albeit ~$50/month.

Not sure how it is in Finland, but in Spain the telephone company is nationalized so they don't care about expanding service and there are really no viable/cost effective wireless options. We've tried WiMax (it goes at a crawl) and cellular is crazy expensive and so is satellite.

I know they have had grants and things to promote expanded broadband access, but it's not worth it for such a small market share.

10/16/2009 9:59:06 PM

Quote :

"Most kids in Japan have no idea how to use a search engine or Microsoft Office and they're doing okay."

What? They seriously don't know how to use search engines? How do they even use the internet at all? How do they find anything new or go to sites they aren't told about beforehand?

Or is internet culture over there just sort of different, similar to how our actual cultures are different?

10/17/2009 2:03:53 AM

Quote :

"Are you saying that before the internet, people weren't able to get an education?"

avoiding the topic to ask, if he was saying that people need books to get an education, would you respond by asking if before books, people werent able to get an eduaction? b/c you realize the point is not getting the education or not, it is the quality of education. it is seemingly obvious, but since you dont understand i will explain: computers and the internet, when used correctly, can greatly enhance an education. let me also ask this: would you be able to make it through a college education today w/out accessing the internet?

10/17/2009 2:35:06 AM

^^ Basically every computer in Japan is set up to go instantly to yahoo.co.jp and outside of that they have no way to get to a website. It's to the point that rather than giving the url on an ad they just say, "Go to yahoo and search for our company name" But, they don't know how to use a search engine other than yahoo's. I watched a guy one time go to yahoo, type in "google" to get to google, then wasn't sure how to get to the map function

People here don't really use the internet unless it's on their cell phone to look up McDonald's coupons or harass their ex-girlfriend.

10/17/2009 2:44:17 AM

All of you talking about "rural areas" need to drive across the country.

the most rural areas in NC are orders of magnitude less rural than 95% of everything west of the mississippi river. it is absolutely not practical to do this in the united states.

10/17/2009 2:56:51 AM

Quote :

"It's to the point that rather than giving the url on an ad they just say, "Go to yahoo and search for our company name""

Sounds like the old days when AOL was popular and ads mentioned their "Keyword"

[Edited on October 17, 2009 at 3:04 AM. Reason : .]

10/17/2009 3:04:33 AM

Heh I'm actually from Finland ^_^

10/17/2009 3:38:52 AM

Quote :

"So you don't believe there should be standards for admission to a university? Anyone with a pulse should be granted admission to a university?"

Of course there should be standards. But you can still give people free tuition if they get accepted to a university.

Let me ask you this: should anyone with a pulse get a high school education?

10/17/2009 7:53:49 AM

Quote :

"But you can still give people free tuition if they get accepted to a university."

That's a completely different argument from the point I was making.

I asked earlier, "are we entitled to a free college degree" which is quite different from free tuition.

someone like God may feel that way, given that he couldn't even put in enough effort to get better than a 2.3 gpa in movie watching. Basically, the people who want free shit from the government are the people who aren't willing to lift a finger to do anything for themselves.

10/17/2009 8:14:49 AM

Legal right? No.
Good idea? Yes.

And Soap Box please.

10/17/2009 10:05:52 AM

Quote :

"Yea, what a horrifying dystopia that would be!"

Swedish citizens don't have a right to food or housing or internet, so I suspect they are a poor example for you. What you might claim is that they have a right to unemployment benefits with which they can buy internet access, but even that can be denied to them by a government agent on various grounds. As such, Sweden is just like here, the only right you actually have is to a trial before they can lock you up.

10/17/2009 10:37:30 AM

Quote :

"to a trial before they can lock you up put you in prison for a long time waiting on your trial, regardless of your innocence..unless you gots money"

10/17/2009 10:44:42 AM

^^I was only referring to a free college education.

10/17/2009 11:22:01 AM

yes, sweden is such a awesome place to live millions of people from around the world flock to it to try to live there and enjoy the wonderful weather and the tolerant diverse peoples that live there...


some of you are some freaking morons

10/19/2009 11:00:00 AM

^^ Even in Sweden, that free college education can be denied to you by a government agent on various grounds. That it is uncommon does not change the truth of it: no one in Sweden has a right to have their college education paid.

10/19/2009 4:26:54 PM

What grounds would those be? Perhaps free education is more of an entitlement than a right, pending acceptance into a University (and from 2010 this will only apply to Swedes and P/UT holders). Certainly, everyone does not benefit from this entitlement since, like here, universities are selective.

However, I suppose that someone could make a solid argument that housing is a right in Sweden. But why are we talking about Sweden? Isn't this thread about Finland?

10/19/2009 5:04:53 PM

Quote :

"someone like God may feel that way, given that he couldn't even put in enough effort to get better than a 2.3 gpa in movie watching. Basically, the people who want free shit from the government are the people who aren't willing to lift a finger to do anything for themselves."

Hey now Bobby, God totally stood up to his boss so he could change into his bike shorts to bike home from work. If that's not good ol' American spirit I don't know what is. And I'm sure he's contributing all kinds of tax money with that customer service job.

10/20/2009 2:15:20 AM