RNP and Linktel enter a partnership and provide safe Wi-Fi service in public spaces
The National Education and Research Network (RNP) entered a cooperation agreement with the telecommunications operator Linktel utility to make available eduroam, the safe Wi-Fi service for the academic community, in public spaces, such as parks, squares, cafes, and airports. In one of these locations, the service is already available for access at the International Airport of Salvador, Bahia.
This is the second time that eduroam is made available in public places, outside of the university environment. The first was in Porto Alegre (RS), in 2014, where the service could be accessed from 15 locations throughout the city, including parks and squares, through a partnership with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and the Data Processing Company of the Porto Alegre Municipality (Procempa).
According to the Director of Engineering and Operations of RNP, Eduardo Grizendi, the service should be available soon in other cities. "We have established a partnership with the largest Wi-Fi operator in the country to deploy the largest eduroam operation of an academic network in public places in the world," he said.
About Eduroam
Managed and operated in Brazil by RNP, the service provides secure wireless access to the Internet for the academic community worldwide and currently has over 1,000 access points in Brazil. With this, Latin America became the second region in the world in eduroam coverage, behind only Europe, where the service was designed.
With a secure Wi-Fi network, the service allows its users to connect to the Internet from any location that has eduroam access points, and authentication is done using the credentials of the user's institution of origin.
This way, it is only necessary that your institution is a user of the service and you have Eduroam configured on your computer, phone, or tablet to detect the wireless network automatically. In Brazil, in order to be a research and educational institution that provides this service, it is only necessary to be approved by the Federated Academic Community (CAFe).