Connected North: RNP publishes Term of Reference for the Contracting of a Neutral Operator

- 28/07/2021

 

The National Education and Research Network (RNP) announced today (28/07) the start of the process and publishing of the Term of Reference for the contracting of a Neutral Operator for Infopath 00 (Macapá-Santarém) of the Connected North Program. The purpose of the document is to establish conditions for the qualification of legal persons interested in participating in the Open Consortium for Neutral Operation, which should operate, maintain, and commercially exploit this infrastructure in a neutral and open way.

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With an approximate extension of 770 km, the project will connect Macapá to Alenquer, with openings in Almeirim, Monte Alegre, and Santarem, benefiting up to 950,000 people. Currently being deployed, once completed, this infrastructure will be operated and maintained by a Neutral Operator through an Open Consortium, whose members, in turn, will receive part of this infrastructure, intended for use by the private sector, for their own use and/or commercial exploitation.

The role of Neutral Operator

"A Neutral Operator of a telecommunications infrastructure is, basically, to operate, maintain, and commercialize parts of the infrastructure, disaggregating fiber optics, optical channels and, eventually, complete or partial capabilities (e.g., 100 g or 10 G) to their final customers, usually, telecommunications operators and providers, providing conditions in which everyone can compete openly on equal market conditions. Certainly, the implementation of this project with public resources and the way it is being shared with the private sector mean a great advance for telecommunications in Brazil as a whole," explains Eduardo Grizendi, Director of Engineering & Operations of RNP.

The deployment of Infopath 00 is being carried out through incentives to RNP based on a management contract with the MCTI (Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation), using resources mainly from MCom (Ministry of Communications), based from its MCTI branch, old MCTIC, in an environment of experimentation and/or consolidation of existing or new methods, processes and good practices, in particular, related to its deployment and sustainability, with a potential for reproducibility in the other Infopaths of the program. 

RNP, as the holder of the rights for the entire infrastructure deployed as part of Infopath 00, pursuant to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Communications, will share this infrastructure with the Private Sector, with legal persons that provide telecommunications services and, exceptionally, providers of services other than telecommunications, such as sensing or monitoring, provided there is commercial use and, from it, society as a whole can take advantage of the infrastructure, benefiting the entire population of the region serviced.

After the deployment, Infopath will have an underwater optical cable with 48 optical fibers located under the bed of the Amazon River, connecting Macapá, Almeirim, Monte Alegre, Santarém, and Alenquer through anchor boxes for the underwater optical fiber cable and Points of Presence in modular data centers in containers, with a DWDM Optical System installed and ready for use, with the possibility of having up to 40 optical channels, deployed in each of the five cities. 

The contract with the company responsible for deploying the optical cable includes a 12-month guarantee that covers breakages and up to 13 days of repair time. The contract with the supplier of equipment for the DWDM system also includes a minimum guarantee of 12 months, which can be longer, based on the guarantee offered by each supplier, currently still undergoing the selection process. 

To qualify, the legal persons who respond to the process must do so by submitting the Instrument of Acceptance and Commitment to the Term of Reference ADC/10323/2021. During the open process, RNP, along with MCom, will promote a workshop to interested legal for disclosure and Q&A about the process and the proposed model of a neutral operator through a Open Consortium.

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