Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
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Re: Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
#21MB as a legal right seems a little dubious, 100MB as a legal right seems even more dubious.
I understand that having access to the Internet is an important thing for numerous reasons, but why the arbitrary speeds? What benefits does a 100MB connection offer over a 1MB connection?
You can enjoy engage and benefit from the vast majority of important stuff on the Internet with a 250kb connection.
Re: Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
#3The voice of the people will be heard.
Re: Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
#41MB as a legal right seems a little dubious, 100MB as a legal right seems even more dubious. I understand that having access to the Internet is an important thing for numerous reasons, but why the arbitrary speeds? What benefits does a 100MB connection offer over a 1MB connection? You can enjoy engage and benefit from the vast majority of important stuff on the Internet with a 250kb connection.
> I understand that having access to the Internet is an important thing for numerous reasons, but why the arbitrary speeds? What benefits does a 100MB connection offer over a 1MB connection?
It's a marketing/political thing. Most users think that a fatter pipe == faster connection, when of course we know that's not the case. Heck, most of the time when you hit higher port speeds it's a case of the content server on the other end not being able to saturate your 100Mbit pipe anyway!
Governments promise these "minimum" speeds or "universal access" as an attempt to appear in touch with technology.
For context, the Government here in Australia has started rolling out a national fibre network (National Broadband Network; NBN), with tiered port speeds of 12/25/50/100Mbps. It's going to be a shock to many (and ISP's are going to bear the brunt of the complaints) when people realise their 50Mbit connection isn't going to give them 5-6MB/s throughput from any/every source.
Re: Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
#51MB as a legal right seems a little dubious, 100MB as a legal right seems even more dubious. I understand that having access to the Internet is an important thing for numerous reasons, but why the arbitrary speeds? What benefits does a 100MB connection offer over a 1MB connection? You can enjoy engage and benefit from the vast majority of important stuff on the Internet with a 250kb connection.
> I understand that having access to the Internet is an important thing for numerous reasons, but why the arbitrary speeds? What benefits does a 100MB connection offer over a 1MB connection? It's a marketing/political thing. Most users think that a fatter pipe == faster connection, when of course we know that's not the case. Heck, most of the time when you hit higher port speeds it's a case of the content server on t…
I've had 50Mb/s for a few years now (UK). It doesn't protect your from network screw-ups, packet-loss or high latency, but it can still be really nice to have.
It opens up the possibility of 'What shall we watch tonight? Oh we don't have that yet? I'll just grab it now. Should be done in ten minutes.' Most digital distribution services seem able to handle uploading that fast these days.
So the main uses are downloading of videos and computer games. Not life-changing, probably not worth calling a human right at this point, but pretty convenient.
Re: Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
#61MB as a legal right seems a little dubious, 100MB as a legal right seems even more dubious. I understand that having access to the Internet is an important thing for numerous reasons, but why the arbitrary speeds? What benefits does a 100MB connection offer over a 1MB connection? You can enjoy engage and benefit from the vast majority of important stuff on the Internet with a 250kb connection.
It's 1 Mb not 1 MB.
Re: Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
#7Also keep in mind this is in a country with around 5 million people and an area of around 330K sq miles. By contrast, Texas has 25 million people in roughly the same sq mile area.
Making such promises shouldn't be hard considering the size of the population and the area you're dealing with in terms of having to lay fibre.
Re: Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
#8Calling access to a consumer good a "right" really cheapens the concept.
The right to free speech doesn't promise every citizen a printing press.
Re: Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
#9Also keep in mind this is in a country with around 5 million people and an area of around 330K sq miles. By contrast, Texas has 25 million people in roughly the same sq mile area. Making such promises shouldn't be hard considering the size of the population and the area you're dealing with in terms of having to lay fibre.
Surely in your example it is actually more economical for Texas than for Finland as the greater concentration of people makes it easier to deliver the service? Sure it would cost more but on a per head basis it should be cheaper . . .
Re: Finland makes 1Mb broadband access a legal right (2009)
#10Calling access to a consumer good a "right" really cheapens the concept. The right to free speech doesn't promise every citizen a printing press.
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