Internet in Finland
Encyclopedia
History
FUNETFUNET
FUNET is the Finnish University and Research Network, a backbone network providing Internet connections for Finnish universities and polytechnics as well as other research facilities. It is governed by the state-owned CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd. The FUNET project started in December 1983 and...
was created 1984 to link Finnish universities. The .fi
.fi
.fi is the Internet country code top-level domain for Finland. It is operated by FICORA, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority....
top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
was registered 1986. FICIX was created in 1993 to interconnect Finnish IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
networks and commercial sales of Internet connection began.
Since July 2010, Finland has become the first country in the world to make Internet access a legal right. Every Finn should have access to a 1 Mbit/s broadband Internet connection at his home. There are plans to increase this to 100 Mbit/s in 2015.
Broadband
BroadbandBroadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
Internet access in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
was launched commercially in 2000 in the form of ADSL. As of 2008, typical ADSL connections in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
are 1024/512 Kbit/s or 2048/512 Kbit/s. Faster speeds, such as 8/1 Mbit/s, 24/1 Mbit/s and faster are also widely available.
In October 2009, Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications has committed to ensuring that every person in Finland can access the Internet at a minimum speed of one megabit per second starting July 2010.
In the city of Oulu
Oulu
Oulu is a city and municipality of inhabitants in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia, in Finland. It is the most populous city in Northern Finland and the sixth most populous city in the country. It is one of the northernmost larger cities in the world....
, Oulun Puhelin Plc (OPOY) has for a longer time offered full-rate ADSL (8/1 Mbit/s) and VDSL (10/10 Mbit/s, actually Cisco
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
Long Reach Ethernet
Long Reach Ethernet
Long Reach Ethernet was a proprietary networking protocol marketed by Cisco Systems, intended to support multi-megabit performance over telephone-grade unshielded twisted pair wiring over distances up to 5,000 feet ....
).
With aggressive marketing, Saunalahti brought full-rate ADSL (8/1 Mbit/s) to the capital area
Greater Helsinki
Greater Helsinki and the smaller Helsinki Metropolitan Area or Capital Region refer to two regions of different size surrounding Helsinki, the capital of Finland...
and Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
on 2004-08-03. Saunalahti announced ADSL2 services (12 Mbit/s) on 2004-10-21, available in the capital area
Greater Helsinki
Greater Helsinki and the smaller Helsinki Metropolitan Area or Capital Region refer to two regions of different size surrounding Helsinki, the capital of Finland...
and Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
. Saunalahti also announced the first ever ADSL2+ services (24 Mbit/s) in Nordic countries on 2004-11-15, first available only in the Tampere
Tampere
Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...
region.
Sonera provides 10/10 Mbit Cisco Long Reach Ethernet in select apartment buildings for prices ranging from 39€ to 50€. Sonera has also started installing fiber optic connections in major areas of Finland, providing a speed up to 100/10 Mbit, albeit also exclusive to apartment buildings.
Internet service providers
Some of the largest Finnish Internet service providerInternet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s include:
- Elisa OyjElisa OyjElisa Oyj is a Finnish telecommunications company founded in 1882 that was known until July 2000 as HPY. Elisa Oyj employs about 3000 people and in 2007 had revenue of about €1.57 billion...
- SaunalahtiSaunalahtiSaunalahti is a Finnish mobile phone operator and an internet service provider. The company was founded 1998 when three middle-sized internet operators merged. The company is now owned by Elisa....
- Sonera
- Finnet
- Welho
Censorship
Some ISPs are using a voluntary child porn censorshipCensorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
list administered by the police. The list has been criticised because it has contained legal adult content, that little has been done to actually shut down the illegal websites and, as the list is secret, it can be used for any censorship. More recently, a government-sponsored report has considered establishing similar filtering in order to curb online gambling
Online gambling
Online gambling, also known as Internet gambling and iGambling, is a general term for gambling using the Internet.-Online poker:Online poker tables commonly offer Texas hold 'em, Omaha, Seven-card stud, razz, HORSE and other game types in both tournament and ring game structures...
.