Bringing high speed internet to the 'middle of nowhere'

As Anne-Mari Leppinen tells it, her British colleague simply could not believe that cables allowing high speed access to the internet had been laid in the middle of a forest in remote western Finland.

"He asked me: 'Do you actually have your fibre optic cable in the ditch?' I replied: 'Yes'."

A few kilometres later, the man, who was being driven to an IT conference in the area, felt the need for further inquiry: "Is it still there?"

"People still find it very strange that we...