1 Mbps Broadband a Legal Right in Finland

HELSINKI — Starting in July, Finland will become the first country on Earth to make it their citizens’ unalienable right to access high-speed broadband at 1 Mbps.

Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communication said that it’ll ramp up that legal right at the end of 2015 by making it law allowing access to super-fast 100-Mbps.

The announcement accelerates Finland's high-speeed access plan, which originally was to be rolled out by December 2010. The ministry's plan still needs parliamentary approval.

France has made broadband a human right but Finland, with 5.3 million citizens, is the first country to make it a legal one. About 96 percent of Finnish are already connected but the country's communications ministry said the new law was necessary to extend access in rural areas.

In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission must come up with a nationwide high-speed access plan to Congress by February.

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