Chapter 2. The ICT Development Index (IDI) Box 2.2: Internet access a legal right in Finland Finland continues to be an impressive top ICT country. It ranks fifth in the IDI (gaining seven places over the past two years) and shows dynamic changes of seven per cent and 35 per cent in the access and use sub-indices, respectively. The country has a history of being an early adopter of new technologies and forward-looking policies. It was the first country in the world to launch a commercial GSM network, and one of the first countries to trial mobile payments and license 3G services. In 2009, it became the first country in the world to make high-speed charge ranging from USD 42 to USD 57,16 which compares with a USD 35 monthly charge in commercially available offers mea-sured by the fixed-broadband sub-basket in the 2010 ICT Price Basket. Finland comes ninth out of the top ten countries with the lowest mobile-cellular sub-basket in the 2010 ICT Price Basket. Growth in mobile-broadband Internet subscriptions (where penetration increased from 24 to 78 per cent between 2008 and 2010) is the main contributor to the increase in the use sub-index. Mobile operators continue to develop new mobile-broadband networks and solutions to support FICORA’s regulation. In 2010, new 4G technology (LTE) was launched in some of Finland’s major cities (Turku and Espoo, by TeliaSonera and Elisa, respectively), gaining new subscri-bers Internet access a legal right.14 The improvement in the IDI access sub-index results from the substantial increase in international Internet bandwidth of 150 per cent – from 200 000 Mbit/s to 500 000 Mbit/s. In addition, Finland features as one of the top five countries in the use sub-index (ranked fourth) thanks to efforts undertaken to improve high-end user access. Finland’s regulator FICORA has mandated a law assigning 26 operators to provide a broadband connection to customers in their coverage areas, making Finland the first country to take this measure. This is part of Finland’s updated universal service obligation (USO). ISPs are obliged to provide subscribers with at least a 1 Mbit/s connection as of July 2010 and committed to providing 2 Mbit/s and 100 Mbit/s services by 2012 and 2015, respectively.15 For those zones to be covered by USO, FICORA envisages a fixed-broadband monthly with early delivery in UHF bands. More recently, Finnish telco DNA acquired Welho’s business operations, deploying an improved network and new service plans attracting mo-bile- broadband Internet subscribers. DNA fully upgraded its broadband network to a maximum bandwidth of 200 Mbit/s and also modified the terms of service to offer non-fixed commitments. DNA will follow in 2011 and roll out its LTE network while simultaneously extending HSPA+ technology to serve Finland’s rural areas. Finland and the other high-in-come Nordic countries are leaders in Europe when it comes to mobile-broadband deployment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