Connected North: the program will benefit more than nine million people

The objective is to bring digital inclusion to people living in the Amazon region

Sep 1, Brazil: Expand the telecommunications structure in the North of the country and bring digital inclusion to people living in the Amazon region. This is what the North Connected Program foresees, launched this Tuesday (1st), at the Planalto Palace, by President Jair Bolsonaro and Minister of Communications, Fábio Faria. “The North region is the neediest. It is the one that most needs investments in telecommunications ”, said Minister Fábio Faria.

The Connected North will be divided into nine stages and provides for the construction, across the region, of 10,000 kilometres of optical fibre infrastructure in a subfluvial environment linking 59 municipalities in six states, serving more than 9 million people.

In addition to bringing digital inclusion, greater integration and income, the program will also boost research on biodiversity, climate change and environmental preservation.

In the initial phase, a 650 km optical fibre section will be built in the region, which will interconnect four cities: Macapá (AC), Alenquer (PA), Almeirim (PA) and Santarém (PA). In this first stretch, 165 schools will benefit, in addition to courts and hospitals. There are 950 thousand people who will have access to broadband internet. This stage is expected to be completed in the first half of 2021.

Then, the North Connected will extend towards the capital Manaus. “We want eight more stages. We will arrive until the west of the Amazon, until Tabatinga. And with the end of this project, we will reach a total investment of R $ 1 billion to reach 9.3 million Brazilians ”, said the Minister of Communications.

The action is a partnership between the Ministry of Communications and the National Council of Justice, the Ministry of Education and the Federal Senate; and it also relies on the private sector and local governments.

They're gone

A total of R $ 42 million was made available to the program, of which the Ministry of Communications provided R $ 25.2 million; R $ 7.7 million by the National Council of Justice; R $ 6.15 million by the Federal Senate; and R $ 3 million by MEC. These amounts will be added to the project's pre-existing resources. "If today we have 40 million Brazilians without internet, with this project alone we will solve about 25% of the problem we have in Brazil", said the minister. And he added that, through the Connected North, it would also be possible to take Digital TV to the North region.

Digital inclusion in other regions

The Northeast and Midwest regions also have a digital inclusion program, each location with its own specificities and characteristics. "Under President Jair Bolsonaro, we are going to have the biggest telecommunications revolution in the country," said the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations, Marcos Pontes.

Antenna Law

This Tuesday (1), Minister Fábio Faria also signed a decree that regulates Law 13.116 / 2015 known by the telecommunications sector as the Antennas Law. The decree will facilitate the process of installing mobile network antennas in the country, a longstanding claim in the telecommunications sector.

“This decree is a watershed because next year we will have the 5G auction; and, if it weren't for the antennae decree, it wouldn't be possible, because we will need ten times more antennas with the 5G auction ”, explained the Minister of Communications.

Encouraged Debentures Ordinance

The Minister of Communications also signed the decree that will encourage investment in telecommunications networks, by means of a discount on income tax. The measure simplifies the rules to attract investments to the sector.