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 71% of the population aged 16-74 years uses the internet (Statistics Estonia, 2009).
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63% of households have internet capabilities (Statistics Estonia, 2009).
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All Estonian schools are connected to the internet.
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A network of Public Internet Access Points covers most of Estonia's cities and towns.
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In addition to Public Internet Access Points, it is possible for laptop users to utilise rapid wi-fi internet connections in more than 1100 public places; in many places that service is free of charge. The area of wi-fi internet is constantly growing and encompasses all of Estonia.
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Income tax declarations can be made electronically via internet. In 2010, over 92% of income tax declarations were presented through the e-Tax Board.
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Expenditures made by the government can be followed on the internet in real time.
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Cabinet meetings have been changed to paperless sessions using a web-based document system.
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There are more mobile phone contracts than residents - 157 per 100 people (Statistics Estonia, 2009).
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Estonia is completely covered by digital mobile phone networks.
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According to the research undertaken by the World Economic Forum on the use of information technology in 134 countries (The Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010 – The Networked Readiness of Nations, www.weforum.org), Estonia ranks 25th in the Networked Readiness Index and is the highest ranking Central and Eastern European country.
e-Estonia - the Home of Internet
Overview
The national information technology framework document is called "Estonian Information Society Strategy 2013", and it sets out the general framework, objectives, and areas of activity for the next several years. A separate government office exists to co-ordinate the national IT budget with legislation and international co-operation; the office also carries out its own development projects.
In 2001, the central database X-Road (X-Tee) was launched, which today provides access to 67 different databases and 687 services. The X-Road's services are used by 392 institutions and companies. The increasing number of services provided by X-Road has made it a comfortable and secure online environment for individual citizens as well, where they can view their information registered in different national databases.
From 2005-2008 the programme VillageWay 3 (KülaTee 3) was implemented, which aims to bring internet connections to sparsely populated areas of the country. Thanks to the programme, the availability of internet connections in Estonia is about 98%.
The programme will hopefully increase the number of internet users, and the "digital gap" between city and rural inhabitants will be reduced.
Within the years 2002-2004, computer and internet courses took place free of charge for adult residents of Estonia. In the framework of the unique training project "Vaata maailma" (See the World), which was fully funded by the private sector, 102,697 people received training, which accounts for 10 % of Estonia's adult population. Surveys following the training have shown that more than 70 % of the participants have used the internet after passing the training.
In 2006, the four biggest sponsors of the "Vaata maailma" project collaborated with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication to create the co-operation agreement "Computer Protection 2009", which aims to make Estonia the nation with the most secure information society in the world by the year 2009.
The primary goal of the project is to ensure that the e-services and IT solutions that play a vital role in the economy remain secure and trustworthy in the future. The project sponsors want to increase citizens' trust for e-services and make them feel at ease in their communication with the state over the internet, and also increase awareness of potential hazards on the internet and how to protect one's computer from them. An important facet of the project is introducing the possibility of using one's ID card electronically. |
