Even in developed countries, in many rural areas the mobile phone coverage, to say nothing of the mobile internet coverage, remains limited. Looking at the evolution of both mobile internet standards and state actions in this regard, this chapter considers mobile internet access from the perspective of human rights. Tracing different approaches to internet access within the framework of human rights, the existence of a right to sufficiently fast mobile internet access without location-specific discrimination is examined. Particular attention is paid to the sparsely populated areas of the European High North and the chapter investigates the importance of internet access in relation to the enjoyment of other human rights as well as the enforcement of this emerging social human right to mobile internet access.
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At the time of writing, in late 2018/early 2019, the technical standards include the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), which is also referred to as 2G, with a download speed of up to 114 Kbps; the EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Evolution), which is another form of 2G technology, albeit faster than the GPRS at speeds of up to 384 Kbps; 3G, with a connection speed of up to 3.1 Mbps, which is the minimum speed required for video streaming and video calls; HSDPA (High-Speed Down-Link Packet Access), which is an improved version of 3G with a speed of up to 14 Mbps; as well as the current standards HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access), commonly referred to as 4G, which provides users with a connection speed of up to 168 Mbps and 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution), which is needed for HD video streaming and provides a speed of up to 299.6 Mbps.