It would seem Finlandis working towards offering universal 100 Mbps broadband access accross the country according to CED Magazine.

To put this in perspective, unless someone in the USA has a fiber optic Internet connection, they probably are lucky to go at speeds of 8 – 10 Mbps.  Fiber optic customers do see speeds in the range of 30 – 50 Mbps, so while they are faster than the average American, they still would be left in the dust of what Finland is discussing doing.

Certainly this is partially explained away by the size of Finland compared to somewhere like the size of the United States.  Japan also has a similar system in place for several years now that guaranteed 30 Mbps service to every house, but most exceed that by quite a bit.

While most people think of Internet speeds only in a matter of how fast they can do things at home, governments are beginning to see it as a serious isse to the future of their countries.  Harri Pursiainen, the permanent secretary for the transport and communications minister of Finland said,  “Data connections are no longer entertainment but a necessity.”  Mr. Pursiainen also said,  “regional, equal communications infrastructure will not come about without state action.”

The United States currently comes in at 15th place on a list of countries with the most high speed access, but we may begin falling even more due to things like this.  The issue with this is that would lead to us losing out on future contracts with companies that demand higher Internet speeds.  It certainly is not the #1 issue on everyone’s minds right now, but it it is one we will need to be looking into as time passes, and the sooner the better.

(via SpeedMatters and PodcastingNews)