(empo-fioy) Broadband? NOW! An update to Finland's "legal right" to fast broadband

In October 2009, I wrote a post detailing Finland's plans to make 1 Mbps broadband a "legal right." Subsequent to my post, Point Topic described exactly what that meant:

In December 2008, Finland committed to meeting a universal service obligation of 1 Mbps broadband throughout the country at a "reasonable price" without public funding by the end of 2010. In October 2009, the country adopted a law obliging telecom operators to provide all Finnish residents with broadband connections with at least 1 Mbps, effectively becoming the first country in the world to make broadband access a legal right. The obligation came into force on 1 July 2010....

But that is just the start:

Finnish government is committed, as part of the “Broadband 2015” project, to providing 100 Mbps access to 99 per cent of the population by 2015. The aim of this project is to ensure that end users are no further than 2 km from a 100 Mbps fibre or cable network.

So how are things progressing?

According to data from 2010, 95 per cent of all Finnish counties are connected to fibre. This represents 99 per cent of the population. Over 50 per cent of the counties have more than one fibre network provider.

However, private industry is already exceeding present and future government mandates:

DNA claims to have the largest number of TV channels in Finland, nearly 160 in total, including 18 HD channels, a combination of which can be chosen under the new Mix HD offering.

As part of the fixed network upgrade, the maximum speed of the broadband connections is 200 Mbps thanks to DOCSIS 3.0 technology, while entry-level speeds are now 10 Mbps.

Incidentally, that text was quoted from a site called CSI, and it talks about a company called DNA. If you've read my blog before, you won't be surprised to know that I'm confused at this point. If you take those acronyms at face value, you have to eyeball them for a while before you can put your finger on what they really mean.