There are now around 700,000 mobile broadband subscriptions in Finland, but the capacity to serve up fast internet connections to all of them is severely limited.
"Honestly, if we're promising a 3.6 mg connection, then that's under laboratory conditions," admits Ahti Martikainen, Sonera’s Press Manager in Finland. "Even under good conditions the speed will be less than two mgs."
When asked why the service is sold at a theoretical maximum speed, Martikainen replied, "It's probably marketing."
Consumer Ombudsman: Deliberately Misleading
Mobile operator DNA's Vice President of Consumer Business Pekka Väisänen also admits that if there is a lot of traffic on the network, the real speed of the connection drops to around half of what the commercials promise.
Most operators require that customers sign on to a subscription of two years or so. If the broadband connection is slow, the consumer is stuck with it.
Finland's Consumer Ombudsman has said that the advertising is deliberately misleading, and says that customers have a right to end their contracts or demand a discount if the service doesn't live up to the market hype.
During the first half of this year, the number of mobile broadband subscriptions increased by more than a third, while the number of cable connections decreased slightly.
