The company provided optical network infrastructure that is interconnecting the entire state, with quality and high-speed Internet.
The Piauí Conectado project aims to connect 100% of the population of the state of Piauí, in Brazil, with a quality Internet service.
As a result of a successful public-private partnership, the project began to be implemented in mid-2019, with the construction of an optical network infrastructure for data, voice and image transfer.
“In 2015, when the bidding process studies began, the state government only had 400 MB of bandwidth available for use and only 25% of the municipalities of Piauí had some connectivity,” said Edson Silva, President at Global Task, the company responsible for the project.
Thus, the project was structured to meet two fronts: The government access points, which include public schools, universities, hospitals, police stations, and other state agencies and public access points, for the offer of free Wi-Fi and Internet.
An optical fiber backbone was built to interconnect the 224 municipalities of the state, with guaranteed quality and security to the connections at 2,400 Internet access points distributed throughout Piauí.
“Furukawa is the main supplier of the Piauí Conectado project, which already has the network infrastructure ready for new technologies such as 5G,” said Silva.
The solution provided by the company includes over 11 thousand kilometers of optical fiber, splice boxes and other accessories, GPON equipment, network monitoring software and support services. In addition to the complete solution, Furukawa also provided training and certification for the professionals involved in the project.
Among the results already obtained, Silva highlighted the over 20 thousand videoconferences held during the COVID-19 pandemic period and the over two million Internet accesses, in 363 public access points already deployed throughout the state.
“And this is thanks to a high-quality network, which made Piauí the state with the fastest Internet in Brazil and also with the lowest latency and best video download speed, according to tests carried out by a specialized site,” added Silva.
Another important result of the project is related to the universalization of Internet access, which included the Mimbó quilombo community, located in Amarante, in the rural area of the state.
“We deployed 150 kilometers of optical fiber to serve this community, which is the first 100% fiber-connected quilombo in Piauí,” said Silva.
The social project, called Mimbó Conectado, connected more than 600 residents of the region, who now have free access to the Internet in ‘convivial spaces’. The school was also connected to the fiber network, as well as the residents’ homes. In addition, the project has already made it possible to bring the benefits of telemedicine to the local community.
