In a ceremony held in Recife last Tuesday (July 11), the government of Pernambuco launched the Pernambuco Network of Research and Education (RePEPE), the first state network formed in partnership with RNP for education and research purposes. In its first phase, the network will take high-speed internet to 20 cities, reaching 10 of the state’s 12 development regions. With this, the estimate is to benefit up to 400 campuses of teaching and research institutions and technology centers by 2018.

By the end of this year, the state government will invest R$ 10 million in the project, which has the technical coordination of the Institute of Technology of Pernambuco (Itep) and the RNP Point of Presence in the state (PoP-PE). The funds were financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the acquisition of data transmission equipment in the early phases of the implementation of RePEPE.

The technical cooperation agreement grants the government of Pernambuco and RNP the use of the energy distribution infrastructure of Companhia Energética de Pernambuco [Energy Company of Pernambuco] (Celpe), as posts in rural areas, for the installation of optical cables. In the first two phases of implementation, the goal is to expand the state network in about 1,200 km towards the interior, reaching the municipalities of Garanhuns, Caruaru, Petrolina and Araripina.

The agreement signed with the government of Pernambuco, through the State Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (Secti-PE), is part of the Veredas Novas Estaduais Program of RNP, whose purpose is to support the governments of the states that have strategies of Internalization of networks for education and, thus, support the expansion of their public policies. The Program is the result of the partnership of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC) with the National Council of Secretaries for Science, Technology and Innovation Affairs (Consecti).

Within the Veredas Novas Estaduais Program for Pernambuco, four technological centers will be connected to the capital Recife, in Garanhuns, Araripina, Petrolina and Caruaru. In addition, internalization will benefit 12 other user institutions in the State. “In our vision 2020, the interior campuses are anchors of the process of digital inclusion in the territory and, therefore, should be interconnected with speeds starting at 1 Gb/s”, said general director, Nelson Simões.

The partnership with the states for the benefit of regional actions in science, technology, innovation and education will allow the inclusion of state and municipal institutes and universities in the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as collaborative projects with entities connected to the metropolitan Recife (Ícone Network) and the support to programs of inclusion of schools of basic education.

The RePEPE implementation project was driven by the Programa Nordeste Conectado [Connected Northeast Program], launched in June by the Ministry of Education, which invested R$ 25 million to bring high-speed connections to the interior of the Northeast until December. The initiative created favorable conditions for states to share this new infobox, which uses the fiber optic infrastructure of the São Francisco’s Hydroelectric Company (Chesf). The company has a technical cooperation agreement with RNP since September 2016 to share infrastructure, having as support the company’s transmission lines.

Source: Government of Pernambuco, with information of RNP.

Photo: Ascom/Government of Pernambuco.

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Agreement between RNP and Chesf will lead to better telecommunication infrastructure for the Northeast