Cisco: Finnish Internet connections not close to fastest in Europe

State subsidies give Sweden fastest connections in Europe

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Finnish broadband connections are only the 13th fastest in Europe, says a study published today, Friday, by Cisco Systems. Sweden has Europe’s fastest broadband connections.
     The study involved a comparison of Internet connections in 42 different countries. In a global comparison Finland was in 15th place.
     
Cisco sees Finland’s low standing as a cause for concern; at the beginning of the decade, Finland was “right at the top” in broadband services.
     In Sweden, state and local authorities have taken on a much stronger role in setting up Internet connections than those in Finland have. Hundreds of millions of euros in public funds were invested in 2001-2007 to extend the high-speed fibre optic cable network to every corner of the country.
     In Finland the matter has been left to market forces.
     Also in The Netherlands, where broadband services were ranked as second best in Europe, the role of the public sector has been significant.
     In Sweden, 19 per cent of network connections involve fibre optics, while in Finland it is just one per cent. The figure applies to material originating from the www.speedtest.net online service, which the Cisco study is based on.
     
The role that the state should have in online services is a topic of ongoing debate in Finland.
      Harri Pursiainen, Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, will present a report to Minister of Transport and Communications Suvi Lindén (Nat. Coalition Party) next week on how broadband can be made available to everyone in the country, and how it is to be financed.
     Pursiainen says that in recent years, the state has focussed on promoting nationwide availability of broadband services, rather than speed. Finland is among the leading countries in Europe in Internet availability.
     The study finds that Finland’s Internet connections are quite sufficient for handling today’s usage. However, more input would be needed for the use of services looming a year or two from now, says Tommi Saxelin of Cisco Finland.
     Sweden is in the same situation.
     “Only Japan is in a phase in which even the newest tools can be taken into use”, Saxelin says. He refers to online services such as high-definition video negotiations and television broadcasts.
     
Internet connections usually get faster over time with a kind of natural inevitability. Cisco has a vested interest in encouraging such development, as the company sells about 50 per cent of Internet framework technology.

More on this subject:
 Wireless Internet subscriptions surge in recent months

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki opens free wireless Internet network (22.9.2006)
  Mobile broadband operators argue over plug-in modem´s nickname (11.3.2008)

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