Finland has become the first country in the world to make broadband internet access a legal right. This means that by next year July telecommunications companies will need to provide all Finnish residents with broadband lines that can run at speeds of at least 1 megabit per second.

Maybe this is something we need in the rest of the world to force development of one of the information ages most important tools. In quite a few countries where telecommunication providers started off as being state own development has been severely stifled by the creation of monopolies.

Some of the biggest sinners when it comes to this has definitely been African countries such as South Africa where most of the infrastructure is own by one company which use to be state owned.

This means that most telecommunication companies in this countries are forced to rent space on this infrastructure which is controlled by their competitor….

Maybe this legal right is just what countries like South Africa are in dire need of to help stimulate development. Let me know what your thoughts are.