And for once, it is Europe, not the US, that is in the vanguard. The Nordic nations may be on the periphery of Europe. More than 50 percent of people in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark have personal computers, more than 60 percent have mobile phones, and well more than half have access to the Internet, way ahead of comparable figures for the United States. The region got a head start in mobile telephony thanks to early deregulation of its national telecommunication markets coupled with the establishment of a single cross-border standard that later spread south to continental Europe. These early developments explain why it boasts the world's first and third-largest mobile phone makers, Nokia of Finland and Sweden's Ericsson.
Nordic governments intend to maintain their global lead.
People living above the Arctic Circle will have the same access to the latest broadband services as residents of Stockholm. Nordic companies also are pulling further ahead of their continental rivals in using the Internet.