Wi-Fi Brasil takes internet to over 13,000 remote points in the country

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  It takes about 8 hours to reach the Guató indigenous community, located in the Pantanal wetlands of Mato Grosso do Sul. Not 8 hours by car, but 8 hours by boat. And a fast boat, says chief Osvaldo Correia da Costa: “To buy supplies, we need a bigger boat. Then it takes us three days of sailing down the river.”

The tricky access complicates the reach of services and communication with other communities. The Special Indigenous Health Secretariat (SESAI) is in charge of the indigenous people’s welfare and says that the contact with the outside world used to be done only by means of a telephone, which was kept at the Army base in the village. With the arrival of the internet, however, communication has become easier. SESAI now has the help of the Wi-Fi Brasil program and is able to contact the village even through messaging apps.

The arrival of the internet through Wi-Fi Brasil has also impacted life in the Porto Lindo village, located in the Japorã municipality, in Mato Grosso do Sul. According to the Guarani-Kaiowá leader, chief Roberto Carlos Martins, the 5,500 indigenous now have better opportunities to work, study, and research, in addition to communication aspects. “We can quickly communicate not only with the community but also with the government and private enterprize. So we have this facility today.”

However, the chief alerts that the internet also has negative aspects for the village, as happens in large urban centers: the excessive amount of time people stay connected. “Rather than talking and playing they are connected to the internet,” he comments.

Throughout Brazil

Currently, the program has over 13,300 internet points in operation, installed in schools, health and security units, and public service providers in remote areas, border areas, or areas of strategic interest, as well as in indigenous villages and quilombola communities – all places of difficult access.

“Where no one can reach, we can reach with quality internet signal,” says the Ministry of Communications’ Secretary of Telecommunications José Afonso Cosmo Júnior. The number of people served exceeds 8.5 million, according to the government.

Source: Agencia Brasil