Tallinn - Estonia unveiled ambitious plans Friday to get high-speed internet access to every one of the Baltic state's 1.3 million residents by 2015. An agreement reached by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and an industry group - the Association of Estonian Information Technology and Telecommunications Companies - promises to turn the entire country into a super-high speed internet hotspot by means of a project called EstWin.
"If the 19th century was the era of railways, and the 20th century saw the development of electricity grids, the 21st century is the era of development of communications networks," said Economy Minister Juhan Parts.
Getting the whole country online would have major economic benefits, Parts said.
EstWin will make available an internet connection of at least 100 megabits per second across the country by means of nearly 7,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cabling and 1,400 wireless hotspots.
Estimates put the cost of the project at 6 billion Estonian kroons (500 million dollars), making it the largest public-private partnership ever seen in Estonia. Government contributions will total around 1.5 billion kroons with the money coming from EU structural funds.
Estonia prides itself on its e-government capabilities and is one of the most rapidly developing information societies in Central and Eastern Europe.
However, around 60 per cent of the adult population still does not use the internet according to research company Emor and the PRAXIS Center for Policy Studies.
