Broadband internet will soon be installed in all urban public schools

06/04/2010 09:27

Jorge Wamburg Reporter Agencia Brasil

Brasília – The Broadband in Schools program, launched in April 2008, by president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, celebrates its second anniversary moving closer to its goal of putting rapid internet access in all of Brazil’s 64,879 urban public schools. At the moment, 66% of the target has been reached (over 45,000 schools) and it is now believed that all the target schools will be served by the end of this year, benefiting 37 million students.

A report from the telecommunications regulatory agency – Anatel – shows that the work is progressing fastest in the most densely populated states: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia. The work is slower in more distant, less populated states , such as  Roraima, Amapa and Acre, but should be completed on schedule.

Broadband connections are being installed in the schools at zero cost to the government due to an agreement reached with fixed-line operators who will no longer have to install phone services (“Postos de Serviços de Telecomunicações”) in every municipality by 2010. Instead, they will install a broadband network that covers the whole country.

Allen Bennett - translator/editor The News in English