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There will be no more waiting for that important YouTube video to download in Finland. National Public Radio announced that Finland is the first country to require that broadband access of at least 1 Mbps be available to every person in the country starting next July. 

Requiring broadband internet access as a legal requirement is part of Finland's effort to develop an information society, according to Communications Minister Suvi Linden.  And as online banking and other internet services become widespread, broadband access is becoming a necessity.

Linden said that telecom operators were not too happy about the requirement but that in the long term it will improve the infrastructure and open new opportunities for online services.

This is just the beginning - by 2015 the goal is to have everyone accessing the internet at 100 Mbps.