Solutions for Wireless City Networks in Finland

Abstract

Wireless urban networks can be approached from many perspectives. They are commonly studied on the basis of technology development (e.g., Chao, Uden, & Shih, 2005), business and service support (e.g., Friday, Davies, Wallbank, Catterall, & Pink, 2004; Jenisch, Orlamünder, Köstring, & Brügge, 2005), urban marketing and city image promotion (e.g., Dobers, 2004) or societal use of technology (e.g., Graham & Marvin, 1996; Rao & Parikh, 2003; Palm & Wihlborg, 2006). This article gives a detailed outline of the provision and condition of public wireless local area networks (WLANs) in Finland. The cases of Oulu, Turku and Helsinki (“Arabianranta” residential area) are presented. These cities are relevant study locations because they have actively participated to the creation processes of public city WLANs. They are also using wireless networks as promotion tools in their image marketing. In addition, Finland has been regarded as one of the top “network ready” nations in the world and was ranked fourth in the latest Networked Readiness Index by WEF (2007) after Denmark, Sweden and Singapore.