Internet in Iceland

The use of the Internet in Iceland places Iceland among the top countries in the world in terms of Internet deployment and use.

Access

Data compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows Iceland with:

• 83.2% of households having broadband Internet access in 2009 (2nd out of 34)
• 99.5% of businesses using the Internet in 2009-2010 (2nd out of 31)
• 91.5% of the broadband access being DSL in 2010
•  8% of broadband connections using optical fiber in 2010

The Global Information Technology Report 2010–2011 by the World Economic Forum ranked Iceland:

• 1st out of 138 in terms of Internet users (93.5% of the population used the Internet in 2009)
• 1st out of 138 in the use of virtual social networks (a score of 6.8 in 2009-2010, where 1 is not at all and 7 is widely)
• 1st out of 138 in terms of Internet access in schools (a score of 6.76 in 2009-2010, where 1 is very limited and 7 is extensive)
• 1st out of 138 in accessibility of digital content (a score of 6.62 in 2009-2010, where 1 is not accessible at all and 7 is widely accessible)
• 1st out of 137 in the number of secure Internet servers (1,711.3 servers per million population in 2009)
• 4th out of 138 in the extent of business Internet use (a score of 6.58 in 2009-2010, where 1 is not at all and 7 is extensively)
• 5th out of 138 in terms of international Internet bandwidth (626.8 Mbit/s per 10,000 population in 2009)
• 12th out of 138 in terms of laws related to information and communication technology (a score of 5.46 in 2009-2010, where 1 is nonexistent and 7 is well developed)
• 25th out of 138 in terms of intellectual property protection (a score of 5.09 in 2009-2010, where 1 is very weak and 7 is very strong)
• 35th out of 107 in the use of unlicensed software (an estimated 49% of software was unlicensed in 2009)
• 45th out of 138 in terms of freedom of the press (a score of 5.76 in 2009-2010, where 1 is totally restricted and 7 is completely free)

In 2007, Seltjarnarnes became the world's first town where every citizen had access to fiber optics.

Technology

ADSL in Iceland is ADSL2+ (since mid-2005) in the capital and well populated areas and ADSL in other places.

The main providers are: Iceland Telecom (Síminn hf), Vodafone Iceland (Fjarskipti ehf), Vortex (Hringiðan ehf) and Hringdu.

Connectivity

Iceland is currently connected via these submarine communications cable system to the rest of the world:

• CANTAT-3 with 2.5 Gbit/s to Denmark, Germany, and the Faeroe Islands. CANTAT-3 is now operated by Faroese Telecom for oil platforms.
• FARICE-1 with lit 300 Gbit/s to the United Kingdom and the Faeroe Islands.
• DANICE with lit 300 Gbit/s to Denmark.
• Greenland Connect with 20 Gbit/s to Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and Greenland.
• Main provider of international capacity is Farice ehf.

History

The early history of the Internet in Iceland:

• In 1986 Iceland obtained a UUCP connection between the Marine Research Institute in Iceland to EUnet (European Unix Network) headquarters in Amsterdam. The connection provided e-mail and Usenet services. Bandwidth was somewhere between 300 and 1200 bits per second (bps).
• In 1989 a connection to the Internet was established using IP over X.25 with NORDUnet in Denmark at 2400 bit/s.
• In 1990 a leased line connection to NORDUnet in Stockholm operating at 9600 bit/s was established. This link was upgraded to operate at 56,000 bit/s in 1992, 128,000 bit/s in 1994, 256,000 bit/s and then 1,000,000 bit/s in 1995, and 1,984,000 in 1996.
• In 1994 the first commercial Internet services, Midheimar ehf, opened with SLIP/PPP access giving people access to the web for the first time from their homes.
• In March 1997 ISnet (a collective term for the Icelandic segments of NORDUnet and EUnet) established a direct connection to Teleglobe in Montreal, Canada at 9600 bit/s. to supplement the European connection. This line was moved to New York and upgraded to 48,178,001 bit/s in September 1999.
• In January 2004 the submarine communications fibre cable system FARICE-1 was put into commercial operation with a design capacity of 720 Gbit/s and lit capacity of 20 Gbit/s (and in August 2013 upgraded to a design capacity of 8000 Gbit/s and a lit capacity of 200 Gbit/s).
• In September 2009 the submarine communications fibre cable DANICE was put into commercial operation with an original design capacity of 5120 Gbit/s (and later upgraded to a design capacity of at least 16 Terabit/s and a lit capacity of 200 Gbit/s). Additionally Greenland Connect as third cable was installed at the same time.

Censorship

Censorship is prohibited by the Icelandic Constitution and there is a strong tradition of protecting freedom of expression that extends to the use of the Internet. However, questions about how best to protect children, fight terrorism, prevent libel, and protect the rights of copyright holders are ongoing in Iceland as they are in much of the world.

The five Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland—are central players in the European battle between file sharers, rights holders, and Internet service providers (ISPs). While each country determines its own destiny, the presence of the European Union (EU) is felt in all legal controversies and court cases. Iceland, while not a member of the EU, is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and has agreed to enact legislation similar to that passed in the EU in areas such as consumer protection and business law.

Internet service providers in Iceland use filters to block Web sites distributing child pornography. Iceland's ISPs in cooperation with Barnaheill—Save the Children Iceland participate in the International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE) project. Suspicious links are reported by organizations and the general public and passed on to relevant authorities for verification.

In 2012 and 2013 Ögmundur Jónasson, Minister of Interior, proposed two bills to the Icelandic parliament that would limit Icelander's access to the Internet. The first proposed limitations on gambling and the second on pornography. Neither bill was passed by the Icelandic parliament and a new government has since been formed following the parliamentary election held on 27 April 2013.

History

On 10 June 2009 the two major ISPs in Iceland, Vodafone Iceland and Iceland Telecom at the behest of SAFT (Save the Children Iceland) and other interest groups instated a null route on the website ringulreid.org, making it inaccessible to most commercial Internet users in Iceland. Other members of the Reykjavik Internet Exchange didn't institute the null route, but both Vodafone and Síminn blocked it at their Icelandic routers.

The ringulreid.org domain subsequently expired and the site was taken down by its operator. But a similar site slembingur.org sprang up to replace it.

Both Vodafone Iceland and Síminn updated their blocks to null route 83.99.152.251, the IP address slembingur.org resolves to. ringulreid.org was a 4chan-like image board in the Icelandic language which had been making the news for cyber-bullying, child porn and similar material. The administrators of the site had rejected these accusations, citing their strict policies of banning users who posted child pornography. ringulreid.org had been set up after a similar site, handahof.org, had been voluntarily closed down by its operator on request of the Iceland Capital Police following their investigation into the matter.

The block against ringulreid.org was instated at the behest of the National Police of Iceland, Iceland Capital Police, the Child Protection Authority of Iceland (part of the Iceland Ministry of Social Affairs), Save the Children Iceland (SAFT) (a private organization) and various other private and government groups, which made public statements encouraging all internet service providers in the country to block access to the site.

Thus the censorship in Iceland is not explicitly government mandated, but implemented voluntarily by private corporations in response to pressure from government and private institutions. Vodafone conducted a legal review to investigate whether it was within its rights to restrict access to the website, and after finding that they were within their rights instituted the block.

In a statement two days after the initial block Hrannar Pétursson, the press secretary for Vodafone, indicated that it was not on Vodafone's agenda to implement a more general censoring mechanism, but as ringulreid.org was an "exaggerated example of such a case" Vodafone considered the act justifiable. His colleague Margrét Stefánsdóttir at Síminn echoed those remarks, saying that Síminn would never close a page on its own initiative, but when faced with such serious requests they were compelled to act.

Since slembingur.org is hosted on a shared web hosting service, and the block takes the form of a null route any other sites that happen to share the same IP address are also blocked. As of 30 September 2010 these were the private E-Mail gateway ns1.bighost.lv, the cosmetics manufacturer saulesfabrika.com, the construction company timbersolution.com, the printing house veiters.com and the boilerplate site ventus.lv. As of 8 February 2011, slembingur.org had changed IP addresses and is therefore no longer blocked by Vodafone. The null route is still in place, so collateral damage is the only result from this incident.

See also

• Internet censorship by country