On 11/28, RNP signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Army to start the Connected Amazon project, which aims to create an optical fiber infrastructure in the countryside of the state of Amazonas and bring connectivity of multiple gigabits to the region. The ceremony was held at the Military Engineering Institute (IME), in Rio, and was attended by RNP, the Army, The Amazonas Data Processing Company S/A (Prodam), the Department of Science and Technology of the State of Amazonas and the Environmental Research Institute of Amazônia (IPAM).

The proof of concept will be conducted in 2015, with the deployment of a subfluvial cable system with length of 10km in the Negro River, in Manaus, and the forecast is that, in 12 months, the same system will be deployed on a 220 kilometers stretch, between Coari and Tefé. Until 2017, other systems are being designed for the deployment of subfluvial cables on the main rivers of the Amazon Basin, which must bring connectivity to thousands of inhabitants of the riverside cities.

The expectation is that the legacy of the Connected Amazon project enables a series of services of data networks to the population of the interior of the state, with the same quality as that of Manaus, currently connected to RNP’s backbone at 1 Gb/s, as a stimulus to activities of teaching and research, telemedicine, distance teaching and actions connected to health, public security, traffic and tourism.

According to Prodam’s Long Distance Network Supervisor, João Guilherme de Moraes, studies are being conducted at the Amazonas River to assess the grounding of the optical fiber on the riverbed, which will depend on factors as depth and density of the fresh water. “From the technical point of view, the subfluvial cable system reaches the complexity of implantation of a submarine cable, on which the grounding of the cable happens due to the salinity of the water”, Guilherme explained.

The Army described the obstacles of bringing network infrastructures to Amazon as “digital Tordesillas”, and  that the subfluvial cable system represents an innovative alternative to satellite networks, presenting a thousand times higher bandwidth.