Estonia embraces web without wires

But it is not political, it is technological. Wireless net access, or wi-fi, is quickly becoming the rule, not exception, in the Estonian capital. That is due largely to the hard work of Veljo Haamer, editor of the wifi.ee website. Mr Haamer, a former computer science student and tutor, got turned on to wireless internet access a few years ago, after reading about projects in America. He visited friends in the United States, learned more about wi-fi, and then decided to start his own project in Estonia. Working with local net providers, Mr Haamer started pushing wi-fi as a cheap, effective way for Estonians to get online. The first wi-fi hotspots launched in the spring of 2001. Today, there are more than 280 throughout the country. You can find access points in many of Estonia's cafes and pubs and two-thirds of them are free to use. Those that charge usually offer slightly faster connection speeds.