Consortium wants broadband plan for the ABC Area
DCI
The Mayor of Diadema, and President of the Intermunicipal Consortium, Mario Reali, and the Executive Secretary of the entity, Luís Paulo Bresciani, attended, last week. a meeting at the Ministry of Communications in Brasilia to discuss the reduction on the costs of broadband Internet in the ABC (satellite cities of Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo and São Caetano) and the increase of the offer of the service in the region. The proposal is to include the ABC cities in National Broadband Plan (PNDL), developed by the Federal Government, which foresees the increase of the capacity of the telecommunications infrastructure of the country until 2014.
Now, the Intermunicipal Consortium will present the Ministry of Communications a diagnosis on the broadband Internet service in the seven cities in the region. "The idea is, from the document, to build a Regional Broadband Plan. The project will be a regional pilot of an action integrating municipal governments inside a metropolitan region", said Mario Reali.
Besides the direct impact on the population that will have access to a cheaper and more efficient service, the program will benefit small entrepreneurs who today have no Internet access or are not able to make full use of the web; regional Internet providers that will have a more clients; software developing companies; and industry, which will be able to operate in the chain of services as a supplier of parts and equipment required for the improvement of the current Internet network installed in the Great ABC region.
GVT has already entered the ABC market to offer broadband and it announced the expansion of its operations in São Paulo from two cities in the ABC, Santo André and São Bernardo. Together, the cities have received investments of nearly R$ 80 million (US$ 50 million). According to the company, the initial coverage is already in phase of completion, and it will feature 70 thousand accesses for regular telephony and broadband. The project stipulates that more than 40% of the urban area of the ABC region be served by the 100%-digital telecommunications network intended for the transmission of data at high speed offered by GVT. Among the services offered the ABC, the company released residential, commercial and business packages including broadband from 5Mbps up to 100 Mbps starting at R$ 49.90 (US$ 31.2).
"The region of the ABC is strategic for our operation in the State of São Paulo that already has cities of the interior and of the metropolitan region", says the Marketing and Sales Vice President, Alcides Troller Pinto. GVT operates in the State of São Paulo since 2002, catering to the corporate market, though. In 20109 started the movement to cater to the residential consumer, professional consultants and small and medium-sized enterprises in the region. With the implementations in the ABC, the area of operation of the carrier reaches 100 cities in 17 States.