Program brings free broadband to Brazil students

Brazilian students in their third year of elementary school and above and those registered in Brazil’s social program registry CadÚnico will be given access to broadband internet connection through a SIM card, to be handed to each student. The benefit comes under the initiative Internet Brasil, to be unveiled Friday (17), said Nathalia Lobo, telecom secretary with the Ministry of Communications, during an interview on radio broadcast A Voz do Brasil Wednesday (15).

The first phase will be implemented in the Northeast, and should cover the cities of Caicó and Mossoró, in Rio Grande do Norte state; Caruaru, Campina Grande, and Petrolina, in Pernambuco; and Juazeiro, in Bahia. “We’re launching the project in these municipalities first as a pilot,” she noted. By the end of the year, all Brazilian schools should go online, she added.

Lobo also mentioned another program that brings free internet to Brazilians—Wi-Fi Brasil. Connection is offered via satellite to underserved communities where broadband does not reach. The program, the secretary reported, has thus far made high-speed internet available in over 17 thousand locations across Brazil, in schools, health care facilities, as well as indigenous and quilombola communities. Connection points are located in more than 3 thousand municipalities, 78 percent of which in rural areas.

Also on Friday, low-income families from the city of Natal, state capital of Rio Grande do Norte, will be delivered digital converters from the Digitaliza Brasil program, which aims to help people migrate TV sets from analog to digital signal. “The kit can be easily installed by the users themselves,” she said.