re: Let’s get this clear once and for all: the internet is NOT a utility

Vital- essential for life

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I'm not here to jump through the hoops of your endless questions and red herrings

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Ironic post is ironic

It’s a utility in Chattanooga.

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Both of you have a penchant for low-effort trolling by nit-picking people's choice of verbs and adjectives, that I can only assume is a sad substitute for lacking any sort of substantive point.

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You progressive filth have a tough time understanding that words have meaning. Those meanings are important.

IF the internet is so VITAL, than it would be something required for life. It isn’t. So take your Y2K scare and shove it up your arse.

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Like electricity, water, or gas.

And it isn’t essential for life. That is all.

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Only one of the things you listed is essential for life.

Don't you get tired of being stupid?

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Like electricity, water, or gas.

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Lol, look at this snowflake pansy thinking electricity and gas are necessary for life. Water, sure, but even still, you don't need running through pipes, what's wrong with walking to the nearest lake with a bucket?

Also, funny you left "telephone" off this list, since that's also a utility and serves basically the same function, sending and receiving information with the outside world, as the internet does.

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And it isn’t essential for life. That is all.

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neither is electricity or gas.

you lose.

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Do you want internet to be billed like utilities? Is this the argument?

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no.. my argument is that his argument is terrible

In Europe people think that because of the importance of it, it is a utlity.

The ID card plays a key role in almost every innovative e-service in Estonia. It can authenticate identity and also provide a digital signature. The weight of the signature is backed by Estonian law making it legally-binding. To minimise risk, the system uses suitably hefty encryption, with only a minimum of private data kept on the ID card. Lost cards can be conveniently cancelled and in over a decade no breaches of security have been reported.

So with all this connectedness it's not surprising that wireless internet is almost everywhere in Estonia, and almost always free and speedy. Wireless internet access points can be found in most public locations: parks, squares, pubs, cafés, restaurants, airports, trains, bus stations and often it's even possible to access the internet in what seems a remote location, on a beach or in a forest.

Estonia is currently also implementing plans to connect up the country to the next-generation broadband network with a transmission speed up to 100 Mbit/s by the year of 2018.

Estonia's progress in this area has not gone unnoticed especially its achievements regarding transparency and accessibility in government, Estonia has positioned itself as a champion of e-governance. A position they endeavour to reciprocate, various NGO's such as the e-governance academy promote collaborations between Estonia and other countries particularly in Central, Eastern Europe and in Africa.

Other ways in which Estonia is sharing its successes is the recently launched, and a world first, e-residency program. "e-Residency offers to every world citizen a government-issued digital identity and the opportunity to run a trusted company online, unleashing the world's entrepreneurial potential." says Kaspar Korjus, e-Residency Programme Manager. The total number of e-Estonians, i.e. e-residents, all over the world, is expected to be 10 million by 2025.

Estonian programmers have been behind the creation of digital brands such as Skype, Hotmail and more recently Transferwise (a online currency converter which has attracted investment from the likes of Richard Branson). Estonia has declared internet access a human right, it has a thriving IT start up culture and has digitally streamlined an unprecedented number of public services for citizens and businesses.

The roots of this revolution began in 1991, the year of Estonian independence, Estonian policy makers were given the rare gift of a bureaucratic clean slate. Placing their faith in the burgeoning possibilities of the internet and value of innovation, they steered the country into a position where it could leapfrog to become one of the most advanced e-societies in the world.