e-Estonia

thumb | right | A sign denoting a Wi-Fi access point in Tartu, Estonia e-Estonia refers to the digital society of Estonia, which facilitates its citizens' and residents' interactions with the state through the use of ICT solutions. Estonian e-services created under this initiative include e-Tax Board, e-Business, e-Banking, e-Ticket, e-School, University via the internet, the e-Governance Academy, i-Voting, as well as the release of several mobile applications. According to the goals set in Estonia's Digital Agenda 2030, the country aims to assure that high-speed internet is available across the country, the digital government services are the best in the world, and the country's cyberspace is reliable and safe by 2030.

== History == After the Estonian Restoration of Independence in 1991, the country was faced with the necessity to build a new technology infrastructure with very few resources, while trying to catch up with the West as quickly as possible. Most of the existing infrastructure was Soviet legacy; less than half of the Estonian population even had a phone line. The first Prime minister Mart Laar and his government saw this as an opportunity to build low-cost, cutting-edge systems based on accessibility and efficiency He pushed the country through a period of modernization, establishing the foundation needed to bring the country into the digital age. In 1992, Finland offered Estonia their old analogue telephone exchange for free, as they were replacing it with digital connections. Laar refused this donation and decided Estonia would build its own digital system. As a result, people went from having no phone connections to buying cell phones, causing Estonia to leapfrog the analogue world altogether.