Communications ministry announces clearance for second phase of Infovia 04

By MCom

This is a machine translation of the original release, issued in Portuguese.

The Ministry of Communications has confirmed that the construction work on Infovia 04 – responsible for connecting Vila de Moura (AM) and Boa Vista (RR) – will be able to enter its second phase. The Entidade Administradora de Faixa (EAF) received the necessary environmental licenses from the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) for the land section of the project. Until now, the first stage had been completed on the river section of the route.

In August of this year, Ibama authorized the laying of underwater cables in the bed of the Branco River for subfluvial deployment. The project is part of the Norte Conectado program and is expected to benefit around 460,000 people in four cities – three in Roraima and one in Amazonas. The digital highway will bring quality internet to public schools, hospitals, city halls and universities.

“We urgently need to improve the telecommunications infrastructure in the North of the country. People living in remote areas need quality internet to access basic public services, such as the SUS. We began this information highway in August with the installation of cables under the waters of the Amazon rivers and we will continue until this connection is complete,” said Juscelino Filho, Minister of Communications.

According to EAF, Infovia 04 consists of a total of 647 kilometers of fiber optic cables, 515 km of which are underwater. When completed, the information highway will connect Boa Vista (RR) to Vila de Moura, a district of Barcelos (AM), passing through other municipalities that are difficult to access, such as Santa Maria do Boiaçu, a district of Rorainópolis (RR), and Caracaraí (RR).

Work began in Santa Maria do Boiaçu, with a river platform laying fiber optic cables along the riverbed to Caracaraí. Then, part of the route from Vila de Moura to Santa Maria do Boiaçu was completed, completing the underwater section. The 132 km connection between Caracaraí and Boa Vista will now be made over land.

Infovia 04 will initially provide broadband internet to 40 schools, three city halls, two National Justice Council (CNJ) points, four health units and four defense points.

Infovias

Infovia 04 is the fourth of its kind to be made viable by the Brazilian government. The first was Infovia 00, which left Macapá (AP) and passed through the cities of Almeirim, Monte Alegre, Santarém and Alenquer in Pará.

Infovia 01 connected Manaus (AM) to nine municipalities, four in Amazonas (Parintins, Urucurituba, Itacoatiara and Autazes) and five in Pará (Curuá, Óbidos, Oriximiná, Juruti and Terra Santa).

Infovia 03, inaugurated this year, connected Belém (PA) to Macapá, taking fiber optic cables to the Pará municipalities of São Sebastião da Boa Vista, Curralinho, Bagre and Breves. In a second phase, the cities of Ponta de Pedras (PA) and Afuá (PA) will also be interconnected.

In total, 28 infovias will be implemented in the country. The aim of the initiative is to increase data traffic capacity and broadband availability in hard-to-reach municipalities.

Also known as “digital highways,” the infovias have a total investment of R$2 billion from the New PAC (Growth Acceleration Program). The resources come from the General Budget of the Union, the Ministries of Communications and Science, Technology and Innovation, the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT) and the 5G auction.

The digital highways allow data traffic to flow more quickly and efficiently across different locations. They will boost the connection of public facilities, such as research institutions, hospitals, schools, and justice system agencies, and will also allow private enterprise, through telephone operators, to boost the market, fostering economic growth in these locations.

Norte Conectado

Infovia 04 is part of the Norte Conectado program, which aims to expand the communications infrastructure in the Amazon Region, through the installation of 12 thousand km of fiber optic cables submerged in rivers, improving connectivity in the areas of education, health, research, defense and the Judiciary.

The investment in Norte Conectado is R$1.3 billion, with 10 million people benefiting and 59 municipalities served in Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia and Roraima. In total, the implementation of the network along the program's rivers will preserve 68 million trees.

Each highway is made up of cables composed of 24 pairs of optical fiber. Each pair has a capacity of up to 20 Tb per second, meaning it can simultaneously transmit the equivalent of 200,000 high-quality HD streaming videos. The cables were designed to last at least 25 years submerged in rivers.