Company provided optical network infrastructure that is interconnecting the entire state, with quality and high speed internet
Connecting 100% of the state’s population with quality internet, benefiting more than 3 million people both with more efficient service to users of public services and also with the provision of free Wi-Fi access in squares and other places spread across the 224 municipalities of Piauí. This is the main objective of the Piauí Connected project, one of the innovation cases involving the use of Furukawa solutions which, in September, was awarded the Furukawa Electric Awards in the Utility/Smart City category.
As a result of a successful public-private partnership (PPP) – the first in the country in the area of telecommunications – the project began to be implemented in mid-2019, with the construction of an optical network infrastructure in the state of Piauí for data, voice and image transport. “In 2015, when the studies for the bidding process began, the state government had only 400 Mb of bandwidth available for use and only 25% of the municipalities in Piauí had some kind of connectivity,” says Edson Silva, president of Global Task, the company responsible for the project within the PPP model.
Thus, the project was structured to meet two fronts: government access points, which include public schools, universities, hospitals, police stations and other state agencies, and public access points, for the provision of free Wi-Fi and internet for the population. A fiber optic backbone was built to connect the 224 municipalities in the state, ensuring quality and security of connections at 2,400 internet access points distributed throughout Piauí.
“Furukawa is the main supplier of the Piauí Connected project, which already has the network infrastructure prepared for new technologies such as 5G,” says Edson Silva. The solution provided by the company includes more than 11,000 kilometers of optical fiber, splice boxes and other accessories, GPON equipment (OLTs and ONUs), network monitoring software and support services. In addition to the complete solution, Furukawa also provided training and certification of the professionals working on the project.
Among the results already obtained, the president of Global Task highlights that more than 20,000 videoconferences were held during the Covid-19 pandemic period and there were more than 2 million internet accesses at 363 public access points already implemented throughout the state. “And this thanks to a high quality network, which made Piauí the state with the fastest internet in Brazil and also with the lowest latency and the best speed for downloading videos, according to tests carried out by a specialized website,” he adds.
Another important result of the project is related to the universalization of internet access, which included the Mimbó quilombola community located in Amarante, in the rural area of the state. “We launched 150 kilometers of optical fiber to serve this community, which is the first quilombo 100% connected with optical fiber in Piauí,” emphasizes Edson Silva.
The social project, named Mimbó Connected, benefits more than 600 residents in the region, who now have free access to the internet in living spaces. The school was also connected to the fiber optic network, as well as the students’ homes, which received tablets to accompany online classes during the pandemic – and also as a reinforcement of teaching and learning.
