Brazil qualifies 12 carriers for second section of Amazon fiber project

The Brazilian government has qualified 12 companies to operate the second section of Norte Conectado, a landmark Amazon River fiber backbone project, as a consortium.

Dubbed Infovia 01, this 1,100km stretch will connect Santarém (Pará state) and Manaus (Amazonas), with branches to Óbidos (Pará), Juruti (Pará), Parintins (Amazonas), Urucurituba (Amazonas) and Itacoatiara (Amazonas), as well as to Oriximiná (Pará), Terra Santa (Pará) and Autazes (Amazonas).

The 12 companies selected were Telefônica, TIM, Claro, Aquamar, ClickIP/ICOM Telecom, SEA Telecom, BR Fibra, Mobwire/DB3, Ozônio Telecom, PPLINK, VOCE Telecom and V.tal.

The selection was announced by Brazilian research and educational network RNP, one of the companies in charge of the project. 

The next step is to sign the contract, which is expected to take place within up to three months.

The selected companies will be able to operate, maintain and commercially use the optical backbone section for a 15-year period, which can be renewed.

With the initial selection of the 12 companies, the capacity of the fiber pairs in the route made available to the private sector will be entirely filled. 

Two other companies were also qualified, Easytech and Manaós, and they will be able to join the consortium, in that order, in case of withdrawal of any of the selected firms.

Infovia 01 adds to the 770km first section, Infovia 00, which was completed in February, and connects Macapá (Amapá state) and Alenquer (Pará), and began operating in July. Italy's Prysmian was the cable provider.

In August, six companies signed up to form the consortium to use and operate that first stretch: Aquamar, BRDigital, ClickIP/ICOM Telecom, SEA Telecom, Fortel/Wirelink and Telefônica.

Infovia 01 is being deployed and should be completely rolled out by the end of January, according to the government. As reported by BNamericas, Chinese fiber optics manufacturer Hengtong was hired as the cable supplier for the second stretch.  

The expectation is that by March the infrastructure will be available to companies to use the service.