One of the fronts foreseen in the federal government's New PAC (Growth Acceleration Program) is the construction and expansion of infoways, infrastructures designed to improve data traffic and expand internet access in some regions of Brazil. What benefits do these investments in infoways bring to the population of the places where they are installed? Two important partners of RNP (National Education and Research Network) in these projects, Connectoway and Huawei will participate in the RNP 2023 Forum to debate this and other issues.

Connectoway is responsible for distributing cutting-edge equipment and solutions produced by Huawei. Today, the two companies provide, for example, switches for RNP's metropolitan networks, such as the Pernambucana Research and Education Network (RePEPE) and the infovias of the Nordeste Conectado program. With the New PAC, the two companies intend to expand their participation in the implementation of infovias throughout the country, including working with small providers and competitive operators that benefit from these infrastructures.

Infovias are tube-like structures with several pairs of fiber optic cables, used to connect municipalities in different regions of Brazil to the internet. Each pair has the ability to achieve data transfer speeds of up to 20 Tb/s (terabytes per second). The locations served by them now have greater speed and quality internet access, as well as better security when sharing information between institutions and people.

“The infovias enable a leap in connectivity for the benefited region, enabling connections in schools and public buildings, and better internet access in smaller municipalities and regions that currently do not have a large connection block. Infovias open up a range of new resources that were previously limited by connections that were mainly only in the hands of private companies”, highlights Paulo Frosi, director of Corporate Business at Connectoway and one of the event's speakers.

In addition to Frosi, the panel will also have the participation of Renato Paes - IP/Access Product Manager at Huawei, Oswaldo Freitas, Strategic Projects Manager at RNP; and Rômulo Barbosa, director of the Department of Infrastructure and Digital Inclusion Projects at the Ministry of Communications (MCom).

For Oswaldo Freitas, from RNP, one of the main points to be presented is that the partnership between the states and the private sector stimulates the telecommunications area, bringing gains to the entire population. Furthermore, the structures promote regional development by allowing, for example, the provision of new services.

“The Forum’s audience will see these projects closer to reality. These infovias will mainly serve the states most lacking in connectivity, allowing us to advance, over the next 15 years, all of our capacity to meet any type of demand from RNP System institutions with more flexibility and better quality”, he highlights.

The New PAC foresees the construction and expansion of 28 infovias. Of these, 18 are state level, 8 are regional and 2 are national. The planned investment between 2023 and 2026 is R$1.9 billion. 

Debates about AI and emerging applications in different areas

The 12th edition of the RNP Forum takes place in Brasília from August 29th to 31st. This year's theme is "Emerging Applications in Education, Science and Culture", technologies with great potential already used in various businesses and initiatives (such as distance learning), but which can evolve further. The Forum will feature debates on the use of these technologies in innovative projects in different areas of knowledge. The program will be broadcast online for free. Those interested in following the Forum in person or online can register on the event website.

12th edition of the RNP Forum
Date: from August 29th to 31st.
Location: Royal Tulip Brasília - Setor SHTN - Trecho 01 Conj 1B. Brasília-DF.
Time: 8am to 6pm.
Registration (in person and online) here.