The process of selection of companies that will compose the Open Consortium of the Neutral Operator (ON) of Infovia 01 of the Norte Conectado Program, of the Ministry of Communications (MCom) is concluded. The 12 legal entities classified and initially selected were: Telefônica, TIM, Claro, Aquamar, ClickIP/ICOM Telecom, SEA Telecom, BR Fibra, Mobwire/DB3, Ozônio Telecom, PPLINK, VOCE Telecom and V.TAL. The result was released this Thursday (15) by the National Education and Research Network (RNP).

The selected companies will operate, maintain and commercially exploit, for 15 years (renewable period), the optical fiber infrastructure (backbone) that connects Santarém (PA) to Manaus (AM), passing through the municipalities of Óbidos, Juriti, Oriximiná and Terra Santa, in Pará, Parintins, Urucurituba, Itacoatiara and Autazes, in Amazonas. In all, 1,100 kilometers long.

“Companies have up to three months to form the Open Consortium and sign the Terms of Assignment to start the operation. Infovia 01 is being implemented and should be delivered by the end of January. Our expectation is that by March the infrastructure will already be available to companies to explore the service”, explains the Director of Infrastructure Projects at MCom, Marcus Arrais.

With the initial selection of the 12 companies, the capacity of optical fiber pairs made available to the private sector in this call will be fully filled. Two other companies that were also qualified, Easytech and Manaós, will be able to join the consortium in case of withdrawal of some of the selected ones, in that order.

CONNECTIVITY FOR THE POPULATION - Each of the consortium members will have a pair of optical fibers available to exploit commercially. This can be done by selling packages to end users or by sharing infrastructure with other operators and providers. Optical fiber pairs support up to 40 optical channels, each capable of at least 100 gigabits per second (Gbps).

For the population, this represents an improvement in the provision of services, as evaluated by the Secretary of Telecommunications, Nathalia Lobo. “Many companies will act and make the final provision for the consumer in the North to have more services, with more quality and more providers, which leads to more competition and better prices”, she highlights. Companies should install their own networks in cities.

In addition to improving telecommunications services provided directly to Brazilians, the high-speed network infrastructure also enables metropolitan networks that provide connections to teaching and research institutions, hospitals, Basic Health Units and units of the Judiciary Power. With the performance of the ON Open Consortium, the public sector will not incur costs for infrastructure maintenance.

RNP's general director, Nelson Simões, emphasizes the importance of this management model. “This shows how a public policy managed to provide a sustainable solution. A project with enormous capacity will meet a growing demand, with low environmental impact and with great social result”, he emphasizes.

Source: Ministry of Communications, with information from RNP.