It is a pleasure to represent Finland in this information society conference. There are many activities going on in this field in Finland. In the time available I can only give you some background information about our national Information Society strategy and projects attached to it. I will not go into statistics - there is a lot of them around here in ESIS publications and the ESIS Web site.

Competition in telecommunications

The high scores of Finland in information and communications technology (ICT) penetration statistics are linked to our competitive telecommunications market. The market was liberalised earlier than in the other European countries - already in the 80s. Finland has always had private telecommunications operators. At the beginning of this century, a local telephone company was founded in almost every town. Today, there still exist more than 40 local telephone companies. By active telecommunications policy their business has been able to extend from plain old telephony into all telecommunications sectors.

Thus, due to historical reasons, the national PTT has operated local telephony mainly in the areas left out from the private telcos - that is in the sparsely populated areas. To compensate this, the PTT had a special right for national long-distance and international telephony. At the beginning of the 1970s, its operations widened to mobile and data communications. Today Telecom Finland is the only national operator in Europe that gets most of its income from mobile telecommunications.

In addition to Telecom Finland and the local telephone companies, most major international telecommunication companies have established operations in Finland during the 90s. Competition in basic telecommunications and value-added services like Internet service provision is intense. Consequently, the level of telecommunications charges are among the very lowest in the world. Telecommunications costs in Finland are 40 - 60% below the OECD average. Unlimited Internet dial-up access costs less than 20 ECU a month added with the price of the local call. The low price level has lead to a high penetration in Internet connections.

Information Society Strategy

The national information society strategy was introduced three years ago. The policy decision made by the Government in 1995 started a great number of different development projects. The achievements of these projects were evaluated last autumn. Based on the results of the evaluation a new national strategy is in progress. Compared with other countries there is a large number of information society projects in Finland.

The aim of the 1995 strategy - Finland Towards the Information Society - was to apply information, information technology and information networks effectively to turn Finland into an advanced information society based on networking. Another important aim of the strategy was to promote information technology and information industry to make Finland a world-class competitor in these sectors.

Most of the State investment in Information Society - approximately 250 million FIM per year - has been used in the educational and cultural sectors. The Ministry of Education has co-ordinated the actions.

A large part of the financing in the educational sector has been directed at developing data-communication networks and buying hardware for schools and other educational establishments. As a result most Finnish schools and libraries are connected to the Internet and trials for the pedagogical use of the networks and computer technology are on the way. Another example of the effective investments in the educational field is the network of universities and research institutes called FUNET (Finlands University Network). It is one of the best in the world as far as its capacity and services are concerned. The network is based on ATM technology (asynchronous transfer mode) and it is linked with high speed connections to the Internet. The university network is run by the Centre for Scientific Computing, a government-owned agency that provides e.g. supercomputer capacity to universities.

Educational administration has also supported municipalities in procuring hardware for comprehensive and upper secondary schools. However, the support has only been around 10 % of the total equipment, installation and software costs. It is clear that the economic resources and preferences of municipalities play a key role in making educational information and communications technology investment decisions in municipalities. There are considerable differences between municipalities.

The Finnish information society strategy has been criticised for placing too much emphasis on technology and competitiveness instead of citizens. It has been criticised for neglecting the regional and local aspects as well as the needs of different citizen groups - the elderly, the handicapped, the unemployed. It has also been criticised for not paying attention to cultural questions such as content or language issues.

The criticism has been heard and the renewal of the National Information Society Strategy is on its way. The basis of the new strategy is man and his survival in a rapidly changing environment. Particularly, preventing the marginalisation of people, communities and regions is one of the biggest challenges of information society development. Participation of municipalities, regions and organisations in the development of information society becomes essential.

The Internet

Information society is said to change the routine of our lives. Technology enables distant learnig, distant working, telemedicine, electronic commerce, etc. The communications and IT technology play a key role and set the pace. The environment has to adjust. But how much will actually change and what are the key trends that lead the development?

In Finland the information society process is a market-lead phenomenon. Government attention is needed in certain areas - for example to ensure the existence of national TV and radio. Competition tends to take the development forward. It does not retain the old. So a balance between new and old is needed.

The Internet is part of the information revolution. It is an invention that makes access to information easy and fast. As you can see in ESIS reports, Finland is a world-leader in Internet hosts per capita. It is estimated that one million Finns have access to the Internet. That is 20% of population.

There have never been any special government programs to increase the use of the Internet. The biggest State contribution has been the university network, which was founded on Internet protocols (TCP/IP) in 1987. Today the network consists of 100 000 hosts and is used by about 200 000 students and members of university staff. High Internet and mobile phone penetrations in Finland prove that the market works.

Another important question is what is done with the Internet - how is it used in Finland? The State has used Internet protocols as the basis of its own administrative networks since the late eighties. Today practically all State offices are connected to the Internet and most State officials have electronic mail and world wide web in their use. The Internet is widely used in business and increasingly in critical business matters like banking, ordering and invoicing. Internet is also used for mass media purposes. Media companies have accepted the Internet as a supplementary channel and the future looks promising. Despite the good-looking trends in Internet usage in Finland I still have to admit that Finland is more advanced in technology than in applications. Especially small and medium-size companies have to be taken aboard. Prejudices, fears and a lack of knowledge still exist.

Electronic commerce

Huge expectations are connected with electronic commerce all over the world. Finland makes no exception. Electronic commerce is a natural continuation of the Internet development. So far in Finland electronic commerce is supported by the Internet on-line payment systems developed by two major Finnish banks. They already have several hundreds of thousands of customers with this capability. The safe use of credit cards via the Net is taking its first steps as the SET-standard (Secure Electronic Transaction) finally is in its trial phase. The SET-pilot in Finland is expected to involve 20 -30 Finnish companies and some thousands of customers by the end of this year. The SET-pilot is opened to every Finnish Visa card holder in may this year. Electronic money is also piloted in Finland. Eunets e-cash system has been available in for almost two years in Finland.

Electronic commerce will require international agreements. Agreements are needed, for example as far as taxation, consumer protection, copyright, data protection and cryptography are concerned. Europe shall act here in co-operation with OECD and WTO countries.

Regulatory aspects

The fast technological development inevitably brings about difficult regulatory issues. To regulate or not to regulate, that is the question. The principle in Finland has been quite clear. Minimum regulation - telecommunication should be treated like any other business. As far as possible we should be able to cope with existing legislation. The Internet for example should not be treated differently than any other media. Self regulation is also a principle which is warmly welcomed in Finland. But hot topics exist. Some examples:

- Internet Domain Name management. In Finland a government agency - Telecommunications Administration Centre - has since 1st July 1997 taken care of the .fi domain. The transfer of domain name management to government control was a common wish of major Internet providers and users. The rules for registration were set through open consultation and both the service providers and users seem to be satisfied.

- Data security - how to guarantee the safe and reliable use of information networks. These problems are related to terms such as digital signature, public key infrastructure and encryption. Things are moving ahead. The Ministry of Justice in co-operation with other ministries is preparing the changes needed in legislation. The timetable for legislative proposals concerning digital signatures, use of electronic documents and certification authority and trusted third party services is 30th June 1999.

In Finland the Council of State made on the 5th of February this year a major decision to start to create and define a Public Key Infrastructure for government services. The new infrastructure will be used for authentication, digital signature and encryption. A new smart-card based official identity card is the visible part of the solution. The Population Register Centre - an agency responsible for the Central Population Register - was chosen as the certification authority. It is responsible for issuing the cards and developing the needed certification authority services. The project is now in its pilot phase and according to the decision, the issuing of the smart cards will start in 1999. The private sector is also moving on very fast in developing its own data security services. It seems the fence has been broken down. The new products will be easy to use and secure.

Thank you for your attention.