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Nelson Simões thinks that Brazil needs to build a new state policy to take fiber to the interior of the country and to enhance the speed. RNP intends to interconnect all the universities located in remote parts of Brazil’s interior with 100 Mbps and with 1 Gbps to those located in the urban zones. "But that requires the construction of a new and different policy, the so called PNBL 2.0 or whatever name it has. The current model is exhausted. To take a new leap we need a new policy," he defends.

(By: Lia Ribeiro Dias, posted on June 9, 2014, in Tele.Síntese; with the collaboration of Miriam Aquino)   Responsible for fulfilling the advanced Internet connection of thousand educational institutions that are spread throughout the country, the National Research and Education Network of Brazil [Rede Nacional de Ensino Pesquisa - RNP], a social non for profit organization that depends on the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, is struggling to bring broadband quality connection to all points. The telecom network is poor and 70% of the cities have only one provider.

To overcome the difficulties, RNP established nine years ago a system of partnerships with actors from the public system and from private companies, which enabled it to provide quality connections in metropolitan areas. To cover the interior of the country, RNP is now also turning to regional providers, small operators who are responsible for access in most of the municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants.

In this interview, Nelson Simões, President of RNP, also tells what are the main technological development projects where RNP is involved. Among them, the preservation of digital cultural collections of public institutions.

Tele.Síntese - One of the challenges is to take the high speed RNP connection to all campuses and institutes created in recent years. How will RNP meet this demand?

Nelson Simões -The broadband coverage is deficient in Brazilian municipalities: 4,601 municipalities have only one broadband provider, generaly concessioned, which equals more than 70% of the total. When crossing this data with the municipalities that have, since 2010, a backhaul which maximum capacity was of 64 Mbps, we reached 47% of the municipalities that year. So there is a scenario where less than half of the 5,600 Brazilian municipalities have a backhaul capacity above 64 Mega, not necessarily in optical fiber. And 30% of the municipalities have more than one ISP. This is the backdrop for implementing connections to higher education in Brazil, which experienced a drastic internationalization.

Tele.Síntese - How many points does RNP need to connect?

Simões -Currently, there are about a thousand locations in the country, with university faculty campus or federal institutes (elevated to university status), which usually involve two to three thousand people in its student body and. Such educational structures have a need greater than 100 Mbps and ideally of 1 Gbps, the need for them is equal to the one we provide to the institutions of urban areas in an effort developed over the past nine years involving many partners to provide high quality and availability public networks. Now, in June, we live a time of great achievements with the launching of the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan network, one of the most complex to establish, with over 300 miles long and 35 institutions, including the City Hall itself.

Tele.Síntese - RNP had a role in driving state networks, which were developed from agreements entered into for the construction of the metropolitan network. What is your opinion?

Simões –I agree with the following vision: when we built research networks in the capital cities it was demonstrated that the accursed thing is not to have the participation of the government in a commercial network. Quite the contrary, since it creates an environment of increased competitiveness. In some cases, it stimulates investment from traders or dealers who also needed to be present for other reasons. This process proved to governments that there was room for a non-commercial public endeavor or in association with the private sector, or even in public-private partnership ventures. As an example we can use the case of  Ceará and Pará. The first is at a more advanced stage; the second one is still recovering from the condition of internationalization in partnership with the private sector. This process can also occur in Bahia now, and has started in Paraíba.

Tele.Síntese - When discussing the challenge of meeting the internationalization of universities and federal institutes, what is the role of Telebras?

Simões –Telebras is currently serving more than 50 institutions inside the country. In recent times the company has had a very strong demand with the World Cup, which limited the potential outcomes. Telebras is extremely important for internationalization, but also the private sector, utilities and new entrants were quality alternatives for RNP. Especially new entrants due to its agility, since they have no legacy. I highlight the role of regional providers typically present areas without service, forming part of the chain to provide telecommunications infrastructure, access and backhaul to other companies and larger groups.

Tele.Síntese - How many partners has RNP today?

Simões –To serve the country interior we have around 15 companies, then in the South, Southeast and Northeast we have more than one partnership in states such as Espírito Santo, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, and even in Rio de Janeiro. There are companies that we cannot claim as regional, for example, companies from the South who are extending their infrastructure to the Northeast, and companies of the Northeast who wish to turn to the Southeast by cutting transit for economic reasons. What is noticeable is that there is a market for small and medium providers that not only meets the segment of the retail market. Some are focused on agribusiness, which is inside the empty ribs of the backbones. So, it is very interesting, as a categorization and as a country: non-commercial research networks are submerged, as well as small and medium providers.

Tele.Síntese - After the PNBL and Telebras, that put the prices down (although today is not competitive), a paradigm shift occurred. How do you analyze this process?

Simões -The PNBL was the trigger, and small providers have merged and organized, creating a brand and a joint structure to meet and accompany this process. For these circumstances, we have a motto in RNP: "If you go to the inside, I'll go with you."

Tele.Síntese – In how many locations is RNP?

Simões -By the end of the year we expect to meet 70% of the thousand points that I mentioned above, along with our partners inside the country. We are trying to deliver, as a minimum level, a 100Mbps connection, because the teachers and doctors who go to the remote locations, shortly after graduate school, need to stay connected with their research and debates groups. The connection quality is key to fixing these professionals inside the country.

I've talked a lot about this subject with Paulo Spelles, from the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education (MEC), and with the Education minister Henrique Paim, and I realized that in Brazil the spearhead to reduce asymmetries is in fact the process of attachment of people who will transform the cities inside the country. Besides the setting of professional and of the service delivery for  institutions, the academic network has been working hard to build an infrastructure for communication and collaboration in the medical field, linking hospitals and research groups. After linking the interior of the country with 100 Mbps, we have to evolve to 1 Gbps, which is our goal for urban areas in the New Paths program. But this requires the construction of a new and different policy, either PNBL 2.0 or whaterver the name it may have. The current model is exhausted. To take a new leap we need a new policy.

Tele.Síntese - What are the provisions for the expansion of the academic network both in metropolitan and rural areas? Does RNP also makes direct investments?

Simões -The main provision is the partnerships with the private sector. We also have partnerships with the public sector, with data processing companies. If necessary, we also invest in the venture - our resources come from MEC and MCT. Therefore, the model is mixed. We have alliance with public actors, usually a data processing company or the Department of Science and Technology, and we invest together. We have partnerships with the private sector as average provider, or great provider. Often, in bids won by a large company like Telefonica or Oi, it was necessary to make a joint investment to meet a particular locality, where the operator did not come with the connection we needed. In these situations, we do the investment together in exchange for a service or a facility.

Tele.Síntese - And that 30% of universities and institutes of the interior that will not be served until the end of the year? What connection do they use?

Simões –Many of them are using the commercial connection, but with a lower speed. A portion is served by satellite, especially those in the north. We have a project to build a terrestrial infrastructure in the Amazon, with the launch of sub-pluvial networks along the riverbanks. We will start a project that will connect the cities of Coarí and Tefé, a stretch of 200 kilometers that will cost R$ 15 million, within the Telecom Innova Program. Our technology partner is Padtec. If the pilot is successful, we can meet the Amazon with this technology. It will be 7,700 km sub-pluvial network, at a cost of around $ 500 million.

Tele.Síntese - What is the strategy for increasing the connection speed of that 30% of institutions? Do you imagine that they will be included in PNBL 2.0 or 5.4?

Simões -We have discussed in a political fashion and hope that this universe will be covered by public policy. We believe this should be the goal of the Brazilian State. The State should say what will do with those thousands locations where university institutions are located in the country interior, the spearhead of a strategy to take fiber to all the municipalities. In this case, the discussion is wider. We leave the discussion about the research infrastructure, a cyberinfrastructure, and headed to a discussion about the country structure. Will we have a strategy to deploy fiber in the cities? The plan of U.S. broadband did this by creating the idea of large institutions. In my opinion, this is good cause it set resources.

Tele.Síntese - Do you have some sample data regarding the effect caused by the presence of RNP's network in these cities?

Simões -We should, but we do not. We hired a socioeconomic study to Unicamp (University of Campinas) referred to impact of RNP in the telecommunications market in general. But it was based on figures of year 2010. The study shows that each real [Brazilian currency] invested in RNP generates two real  in the telecommunications and information chain. So if I run R$220 million per year - this was the budget last year - I am generating R$ 440 million in the chain. Moreover, according to Unicamp, we know that a job in RNP generates other eight.

Tele.Síntese - Do you believe in mobile technology in order to meet the needs in your area?

Simões -Certainly, but it is complementary. Education and research institutions are permanent and “greedy” in terms of bandwidth.

Tele.Síntese - RNP has an area of networking innovation where is the sub-pluvial cable. What other innovative projects are being developed? Anything in the content area?

Simões -For RNP the content are the platforms to enable storage, use and reuse. There is a need today in the academic network to strengthen the infrastructure on campus. For example, the metropolitan network in Brasília arrives to the University of Brasilia (UNB) with 10 Gigabits, but must also reach the campus with a 10 Gigabit range. We are expanding all around, but there are weaknesses within the campus, such as storage, security and mobility. We are working with the vision of creating a community cloudowned by RNP together with the universities. A month ago, we launched the first datacenter container in Manaus, this is part of a a project of shared data centers. The next will be settled in Recife.

Tele.Síntese - You commented that one of the projects that tRNP is developing for the Ministry of Culture is devoted to digital preservation. What's this?

Simões –It is about scaning and storing documents, movies and books. It is very difficult to do this in a professional and safe manner.

Tele.Síntese - But isn’t Google creating a global database just for that?

Simões- Google intends to make a world file, but what Brazilian institutions are collaborating with Google? What is the motivation of Brazil to collect its digital content and host it somewhere in Google? I think it is important that countries have the capacity to preserve their culture. And today we have generated a culture that was born digital. Here we have a challenge. In filming, for example, any film can be digitally done, but as oddly as it sounds every film is preserved in chemicals. The audiovisual industry has been greatly transformed by the cheapening of high quality video. Produce a film in digital format is common, but to keep it in digital is a challenge. If I were a filmmaker and have a short or long film, where should I store it? Should I put on Google? If I'm a producer and have a very big production, I need to save it somewhere, and there is where the problems begin. Well, wherever it is stored and depending on how the information is handled, the file becomes much more fragile than it was in a copy of celluloid. Celluloid proven to last 150 years if it is stored in a dry place.

Therefore, the industry is going through a time where new business models and new technologies will ensure that digital preservation. Worldwide ways to do this are under a research process. And in Brazil, especially in front of the weaknesses of our institutions (of all of them, science and technology, culture, museums, libraries, universities), we need to invest in this direction, in order to preserve our memory, our culture. One of the strategies of RNP in the Culture program is working with collections.

Tele.Síntese - Specifically regarding audiovisual content, do you have a project in progress?

Simões -With the Cinematheque, we have three lines of action. One is the cinema network, where many of the important titles in the history of Brazil's cinema are already digitized, for example the filmography of Glauber Rocha, Eduardo Coutinho, and others. Today, almost none university has a screening room to put a roll of film. But it is possible to generate a good digital projection room. A cinema network was needed.

We also have a pilot project with six rooms, one in each university, where movies of the Cinematheque are shown. The rooms that are currently in the pilot are USP Cinema, Redemption Cinema (in Porto Alegre, in UFRS), the UFBa in the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation in Recife, and the Brazilian Cinema. It is a networking program, with no difference with what the commercial circuit does, but with a detail: the encoding platforms in NK, 2K, 4K or 8K are developed by a research group in Brazil. Starting from this we are generating a hardware and a software that costs many times less than if we had to buy it from overseas manufacturers.