Only three years after the last Soviet tanks rolled out of Estonia, a new breed of street sign is appearing throughout the remote, cold countryside.

The signs bear one word in English: Internet. But they point to public access points where Estonians can log on to the World Wide Web without cost.

A flow of United Nations development funds means such Internet stations are popping up even outside of the capital city of Tallinn on remote farms.

Out of their dilapidated past, Estonians are attempting to build for a technological future.

The country is already amongst the world's greatest users of the Internet. Those pushing for the change call it the "Tiger leap".

Linnar Viik of the Tiger Leap Foundation said the push was necessary to equip Estonians for the next millennium.

"Estonia is trying to invest and work hard to increase the capacity, increase awareness and the potential of our people to be able to meet the needs of the 21st century and the information society," he said.

Funding from the European Union is also allowing schools to connect to the Web.

Yet the Net has something to offer the older and more traditional Estonian who would rather live far from the hassle of the city.

Tonu Onepalu is an Estonian writer and journalist who has left Tallinn for the quiet life in the countryside.

Tonu Onepalu

Through the Net, he has found the change has had remarkably little effect on his work.

"There are too many unhappy people all around [in the city]," he said.

"It just makes it so much easier to send my articles there and to read the foreign newspapers ... and also to be connected to my friends."

In Estonia, a quiet revolution appears to be taking place.
 

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