Estonia: Where the Internet is a Human Right

securitas writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports on technological change in Estonia, where an enlightened post-Soviet era government believes the Internet is essential for life in the 21st century and backs that up with legislation declaring Internet access is a human right. Estonia is a country where hot, running water was a luxury a decade ago. It's now a place where farmers have broadband Internet, 80% of the people use online banking, Internet usage and broadband penetration rates are comparable to Western Europe, and the government conducts most business (meetings, votes, document reviews, etc.) virtually through a system of networked computers. Not bad for a country that only 10 years ago was a crumbling, bankrupt mess with a network infrastructure to match."

Comments

Re:The whole country, or just the Tallinn area?

[tomatensaft]

I live in Estonia, in Tallinn... :D We have some users in bigger towns and even in farms who are using good ADSL Internet access (with, say, 512 Kbit or 1 Mbit/s connection)... In smaller towns people are using shared Internet access, that means "divided Internet". In Tallinn it is almost normal to have a Cable or ADSL Internet access, because it is relativelyy cheap compared to the comfort of use. And almost 66-75% of families (mostly those with kids) have a PC at home with Internet access in Tallinn...

What a pile of nonsense

[MSBob]

Since when was Estonia 'nearly bankrupt' or had hot water as a 'luxury'. Estonia has always been doing relatively well even during the years of Soviet occupation.

Just to clarify Estonia is not an 'ex-Soviet' republic. It is an independent country that was forcibly occupied by Soviets in 1940 and regained their independence in 1990. Even their language has nothing to do with Russian. It shares its roots with Swedish and Norwegian.

Re:What do you expect

[m_chan]

I couldn't decide if you were being funny, trolling, or flaming. Often, good posts are all three. Anyway, I saved my modpoints and replied to you instead.

I assume you have not read articles from The Christian Science Monitor. I would not consider myself a religious person, let alone a Christian. However, I have found this publication to be valuable in its content, mainly because they have their own writers and do not rely as significantly upon wire services.

I pulled some info from their about page for you and anyone else not interested in clicking through to read.

Consider this quote from _1908_ about the intent of the publication:

there was a growing need for a daily newspaper that "will place principle before dividends, and that will be fair, frank and honest with the people on all subjects and under whatever pressure" -- a truly independent voice not controlled by "commercial and political monopolists."

Here is another quote to chew on:

The Christian Science church doesn't publish news to propagate denominational doctrine; it provides news purely as a public service. Here's why: If the basic theology of that church says that what reaches and affects thought shapes experience, it follows that a newspaper would have significant impact on the lives of those who read it.

Try reading some of their articles. I think you will find it a valuable source of information, regardless of the connotation in their banner.

here is what turned it around for them.

[abhisarda]

Ok.

I saw a programme on DW-TV a few months ago on this subject. Why has Estonia made such progress while its neighbours are still languishing in the soviet era?

The reason of such a profound change in Estonia is because of one main reason- change of guard. Young people control the majority of Estonia's power. Be it politics, architecture, medicine..you name it. The older generation has handed over a lot of the responsibilities.

The prime minister himself is 35 years old. All the members of his cabinet are younger to him.

What is so special about young people? They carry no baggage. They want more economic progress and they will do whatever is needed to achieve that. Politicans/businesspeople/engineers work towards a common goal i.e economic progress. Nobody cares a damn about communist crap.

Here is a quote taken from (DW-TV).

YOUNG ESTONIAN LEADERS

One of Estonia's youngest politicians was asked this week to be the country's new prime minister. 35-year old, Juhan Parts - who was 24 when he started in politics - was chosen by the victorious Res Publica party after recent elections in the Baltic state. Described as 'boyish and brainy', Parts belongs to a tradition of young leaders in top positions within Estonia's government. The country's first prime minister after independence was Mart Laar who was 32 years old when sworn in.

Here is a related article about young people in Estonia.

Leaders elsewhere in the struggling economies of Europe could learn something from Estonia.

Internet prices in Estonia

[m9]

Just some statistics from someone who lives in Estonia:

Starman Cable
64/32 = 149EEK = 11$ = 10
512/128 = 295EEK = 23$ = 20
1024/320 = 495EEK = 38$ = 33

Estonian Telephone ADSL:
256/128 = 295EEK = 23$ = 20
512/256 = 495EEK = 38$ = 33

Cable is only available in the bigger cities, ASDL is available almost whereever there is a telephone line. There is no limit on how much you can download. 11$/month for an always-on connection which is faster than a dialup is quite cheap IMO.

And whereever even the telephone lines don't go, you've got GPRS which is relatively cheap compared to other countries (from ~2.5 to ~0.7 $/ per MB!)

All of my friends have internet access. Only one of them has dialup. Even my grandmother surfs on the net! My grandfather doesn't though... Some older people fear the internet.. (i'm not touching that computer, i'll brake it!), but almost everybody (at least in the cities) has used internet/computer in their lives..

marius

Re:The whole country, or just the Tallinn area?

[fazz]

as a citizen of Estonia, I can confirm that:

a) hot water was NOT a luxury 10 years ago.
b) broadband internet is NOT available for most of the territory outside major cities.
c) telephone network was in very poor condition 10 year ago, indeed. i started using FidoNet back in 1992 and it was a real mess for next few years.
today, it's much better.

for me, this is typical overdramatic artice from foreign media. ;-)

--
fazz