Last week saw two interesting announcements that say a lot about the importance of internet access.
First, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, announced he is in favour of introducing WiFi onto the London Underground in time for the Olympics in 2012, as long as the technology is viable.
Second, the Finnish parliament passed a law to make access to the internet a legal right, giving it the same status as the right to freedom of expression. This makes Finland the first country in the world to give net access this level of legal status.
Both of these stories demonstrate that the internet is no longer a luxury. As the Finnish communications minister said, in explaining the rationale for his government’s decision: “Internet services are no longer just for entertainment.”
The Mayor of London’s indication that he’d like to WiFi-enable the Tube network shows that he’s aware we need to innovate to become a fully digital society. We’d be interested in hearing your views on what else should the public and private sector be doing, so drop us a line and let us know.
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Steve Hawtin
How can the Finnish make access to the Internet a legal right? Surely no one is denying them access to it, so why make companies legally responsible for getting it to them? Surely you only need a law like this to prevent people from being denied it by someone else. As its always something that’s paid for, no company will deny revenue? This is a very strange descision.
As for what public and private sectors should be doing, I should think they have more pressing problems than providing internet access. How about we sort out immigration, NHS, schools, public transport, the Post Office, BA, prisons, ASBO’s, youth crime, inner city poverty and the thousands of other issues that are slightly more important than internet access?
steelrider
I think they are merely reiterating the main priciple of freedom of expression which is supposed to be the main tenet of any democracy. As for Boris and his plans, would you prefer us to retain our image as a ‘medieval theme park off the western coast of europe’?