It's, food,, water, and, broadband, Finland., How, cool, that?

Finland became the first nation to make broadband a legal right to its 5.5 million citizens. Broadband is on par with food, water and electricity.  Just not that. It mandated a minimum speed of 1 Mbps and will be going up to 100 Mbps by 2015.

I can see a reason why broadband as a legal right makes sense. It makes the world flat. Really, really flat. Which means the whole world will become an oyster for any youngster with a keyboard and a mouse and of course, a broadband connection.

How else can a phenomenon like Asian Correspondent happen? Bloggers are across the world. Editors are across the world. Yet they connect through a common platform.  How would it be possible without broadband and our undersea cables?

Most of us wouldn’t have thought about it this way because, broadband has become a hygiene factor. Don’t you think everybody else in the world deserve the same chance?

Can any other country replicate this?

I cannot speak for any other country but I will speak for India.

Broadband as a legal right in India is far fetched. The notion is insane and the person is delusional. Internet subscribers in India, as per various estimates, oscillate between 30 million and 60 million. India’s population is 1.2 billion.

Of those only 6 million qualify as broadband connections as per Indian regulators. Strictly speaking most of the 6 million broadband connections are narrow band. The speed is a tad above 256kbps. India is not there and not even close.

Water the most basic necessity is not easily available for most of Indians. We should leave India alone out of this race until everybody in India have access to clean drinking water and electricity. In the interim we should cheer up any other country which makes broadband legal.

PS : It is wrong to compare Finland with any other country because Finland’s population is little less than the population of Bangalore. I will ask it anyway. Who’s next?

PPS : This post is written on a 512 kbps connection provided by a a state owned broadband service provider.