*Article updated on 12/07/21

The Brazilian Ministry of Education is the newest institution user eduroam (education roaming), a secure wireless network access service developed for the international community of education and research and operated in Brazil by RNP. 

The initiative allows students, researchers, servers, collaborators, and teams of the participating institutions to have Wi-Fi Internet connectivity at any location that offers this option as a service provider. 

In addition to the headquarters of the Ministry, in Brasília, three units linked to MEC now have points of access to the service: the Brazilian Company of Hospital Services (Ebserh), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education (Capes), and the National Fund for Development of Education (FNDE). 

In the case of Ebserh, in addition to headquarters in Brasilia, access points in other two university hospitals were also enabled: University Hospital of Sergipe (HU-UFS) and University Hospital Onofre Lopes (HUOL), of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The expectation is that eduroam access is expanded in all hospitals administered by the Ebserh.

"The participation of MEC in the Eduroam network demonstrates the importance of research networks for the activities of the Ministry and an innovative perspective on the connected world. Supporting vanguard actions already widespread worldwide, the Eduroam network brings technical advantages to MEC and offers greater ease and security to the visiting public," declared the general coordinator of Information Security and Infrastructure of MEC, Edgard Carvalho Ribeiro Neto.

In addition to security, eduroam's benefits include having no costs, mobility, ease of use, and integration with the Federated Academic Community (CAFe) - an identity management federation that brings together education and research institutions managed by RNP in Brazil.

How to connect to Eduroam

To connect to the eduroam network, just enter the credentials used to access the MEC network (login and password). Users of participating institutions who are visiting other eduroam participating institutions must use the login and password of the institution of origin. 

Source: MEC, with information from RNP.