COMMENTARY: Helsinki - a wireless backwater

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By Jarmo Huhtanen
     
      Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen was playing an old record when he said in Friday's Helsingin Sanomat that the city does not want to take part in setting up a wireless Internet network in Helsinki. Pajunen wishes to leave the setting up of WLAN connections to private business.
     
I have started to suspect that people in Helsinki really do not understand what the wireless Internet involves. Fast wireless Internet access is part of the basic infrastructure, which the city cannot wash its hands of. What is strange is that at the same time that Helsinki is putting money into the Forum Virium project in Pasila, our capital city is allowed to remain a backwater of the wireless world.
      I certainly understand the desire on ideological grounds to allow the network to be set up by private companies. But so far no private companies have come forward to set up such a network.
      I also understand that the city does not want to build the network itself. It probably would not be the wisest idea for the city to set up its own WLAN network, but the city should certainly have a clearly more active role in matters, at least in the core of the centre of Helsinki, than it does now. The current passive stance of the city is embarrassing.
     
If it wished, the city could be an active player, significantly promoting the creation of a low-cost wireless network in the centre of town. There are any number of models; one can certainly be found to fit Helsinki's price range.
     
Did you know, by the way, that there is a wireless network in Helsinki's City Hall? Its advantages have been recognised, and it is used actively during meetings of the City Council, for instance.
      Why is it that the thought-horizons of decision-makers and civil servants do not extend beyond the walls of the City Hall edifice?
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 25.2.2006


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Free wireless Internet access planned for parts of centre of Helsinki (24.2.2006)

Links:
  Forum Virium Helsinki

JARMO HUHTANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jarmo.huhtanen@hs.fi