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Electronics and electrotechnics Industry:
FINLAND A TOP IT COUNTRY
Finland has been resolutely developed into an information
society over the course of several years. As the information
society has developed, changes have been experienced by production,
working life, training, distribution channels, consumer habits
and everyday life.
The new applications in information technology and technology
have had a major impact both socially and economically. Citizens
are expected to master new equipment-skills and companies
have become users of a different type of information technology.
The IT sector is constantly growing and developing globally.
E-commerce has taken a big slice of the sales of products
such as records, books and clothes.
Finns can use information networks for their everyday activities
in a wide number of ways. Bank transactions and dealing with
government departments can be handled online, as can purchasing
flight tickets and concert tickets. Tram tickets can be ordered
from a mobile phone and pictures sent by a phone. There were
16 million Internet subscribers and 8 million mobile phone
subscribers throughout the whole world in 1995. By the end
of 1999 there were 240 million Internet subscribers and 450
million mobile phone subscribers. In 2002 there will be 1
billion mobile phones. At the end of 2002 an extremely fierce
debate was taking place in Finland concerning the universal
mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), which is the third-generation
mobile telephone system, otherwise known as 3G.
IT centres of expertise spring up everyhere
There are numerous IT centres of expertise in Finland that
have sprung into being near universities and technical universities.
The biggest are situated in Oulu, Jyväskylä and
Tampere in addition to Helsinki.
For example in Oulu there are a large number of IT companies
that either operate independently or as sub-contractors for
major companies.
In the Oulu region the expertise in mobile technology in
particular is top notch internationally. Information technology
is one of the areas of emphasis at Oulu University. Infotech
Oulu promotes the top research in information technology at
Oulu University. First-class expertise in electronics production
is being developed constantly in the Oulu region.
Published 2003
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