Estonia Becomes E-stonia

But while this capital city of Estonia -- a North-European country along the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea -- remains a living museum, it is also a hi-tech hotbed as well. For instance, the technologies for Skype and Baidu were developed in this country.

And recently, with the latest group of Wi-Fi access points installed, this 45,000 square-kilometer former Soviet nation is now also completely covered with wireless Internet access, setting an example for many more-developed and richer states that have been trying to achieve this feat for years. Often called E-stonia by geeks, every one of its 1.4 million residents, half of which live in the suburban and rural areas, are connected by wireless Internet.

More than two-thirds of the population conduct their personal banking transactions and file their taxes online. And school children access the school's servers and connect to national libraries from home -- or anywhere for that matter. In Estonia it is even possible to travel between cities by trains and busses and maintain Wi-Fi Internet access.

Above all, much of this access comes virtually free. Users do not pay any access charges directly in most locations. And interestingly, this wireless deployment through the whole country has been achieved with almost no government support.

Barring a few schools and libraries that have been set up by the Estonian government, the 1100-plus Wi-Fi hotspots that span the country, covering every nook and corner, have been set up by local small businesses, such as hotels, cafes, groceries and gas stations, along with the four national telecom companies. And the whole effort has been and still is driven largely by just one man: Veljo Haamer, a technology geek who conceived this dream of wiring - or rather unwiring -- his country about 6 years ago.

I realized way back in 2002 that, for Estonia, the Internet could be just like electricity," says Haamer, who along with a group of volunteers, created a non-profit association WiFi.ee, in which he is an editor and incidentally the only one drawing a salary. And just as it happened 100 years back when initially people did not care about electricity, Estonians too were not bothered about the Internet."

That is when, says Hammer, he started being a technology evangelist and started promoting free access to the Internet as a human right. I took upon myself the task of convincing everyone I could that the benefits of Internet are enormous," he says. Through newspapers articles and visual signs, and the first step of setting up around 100-odd free Wi-Fi hotspots, Haamer with Wifi.ee demonstrated the power of Internet on life.

It took us a while to drive the concept home but having achieved that, the rest wasn't very difficult, says Hammer. We were able to create a competitive environment between businesses, like competition between different cafes or hotels and soon the numbers (of Wi-Fi hotspots) started growing rapidly. That's how the concept caught on and eventually almost every school, household and businesses, big and small, joined the movement."

Source http://govtech.com/gt/284564

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Copterline Resumes Flights to Estonia

Wednesday resumed helicopter flights between Finland and Estonia, which were suspended soon after a fatal crash killed all 14 people on board. The Finnish company restarted the service with one helicopter flying 12 return flights from Helsinki every weekday to the Estonian capital, Tallinn. It plans to add another helicopter later this year.

The service was disrupted in 2006 following falling demand in the aftermath of the August 2005 accident when the company's U.S.- Sikorsky S-76 helicopter fell into the Baltic Sea soon after takeoff from Helsinki. All 14 on board two Finnish pilots and 12 passengers drowned as the helicopter sank in around 10 seconds.

An international investigative commission last year found that a malfunction in the helicopter's steering system had been the likely cause of the crash. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., United Technologies Corp.,

There were heavy storms in the region that day, but the commission dismissed weather as a factor, maintaining the accident was caused by technical failure. Copterline was restructured last year with new owners, and now uses an Italian-British AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter on the 80-kilometer (50-mile) route. Demand has been satisfactory," Copterline Managing Director Jerker Molander said. We are aiming at an annual passenger count of some 70,000."

The 18-minute connection between the two capitals proved highly popular after it was started in 2000, especially among businesspeople. At its peak, Copterline annually carried 75,000 passengers on the route.

Source http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5686822.html

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Less than 30 leaves Elcoteq Tallinn

Elcoteq Tallinn told evertiq that this will concern less than 30 employees from different departments. "We are talking about changing the organization of work with the aim to reduce the expenses and to improve the efficiency of the company.

As a result, the work duties of certain White Collars in Elcoteq Tallinn will change, they will be offered a new job or their employment contracts will be terminated" a company spoke"s person told evertiq. This change will concern less than 30 employees from different departments.

This is a normal part of continuous improvement of the company. The main of these changes is to increase the competitiveness of the company and to adjust the organization to the needs of our current and new customers".

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