{"id":41333,"date":"2018-02-01T13:41:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T16:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=41333"},"modified":"2018-02-07T15:02:49","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T18:02:49","slug":"broken-connection-part-2-polygons-of-disconnection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=41333","title":{"rendered":"Broken Connection Part 2: Polygons of Disconnection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Por<\/strong>tugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This is the second article in a\u00a0four-part series on Internet access<\/a> access in favelas and urban peripheries in Brazil. Don’t miss part one here<\/a>. For the entire original article in Portuguese by\u00a0Escola de Jornalismo \u00c9nois and data_labe<\/em>\u00a0published by Nexo Jornal click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Most traditional Internet<\/a> providers do not reach Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a>, in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone<\/a>. Only a small part of the favela complex has access to a connection provided by Oi. The majority of the community, which has more than 120,000 inhabitants, remains under-connected. Even if they could afford it, many Mar\u00e9 residents would not be able to obtain a fixed Internet plan<\/a>, which means that instead they have to rely on illegal wire hookups, the so-called gatos<\/em><\/a>, or mobile Internet plans for cell phones or tablets. There is no infrastructure. The polygon of disconnection coincides with the borders of the favela.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Three kilometers from Mar\u00e9 is the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro<\/a> (UFRJ) campus, where the academic community surfs the Internet using a fixed connection of 100 Mb\/s. This is the Internet source that connects some of Mar\u00e9’s residents in a DIY work-around<\/a> known as a mesh network<\/a>. Installed by the Coolab<\/a> collective, which provides connection alternatives in communities without Internet access, it distributes the connection in a section of the favela by creating a web of wi-fi routers that replicate the signal across the region. The horizontal system forms a network with equal points, and is an inexpensive alternative to circumvent exclusion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Because it’s the Internet, we’re talking about basic communication. They are areas that have no [fixed] telephone connection, no communication infrastructure. The important thing is to be able to send a message to someone, organize something, ask for help, a medical request, any kind of emergency… now these people are not isolated,” says Bruno Vianna, one of the members and founders of the collective. “Browsing the Internet itself, accessing information is another layer of advantage<\/a>: access to education<\/a>, culture<\/a>, information, news. All this makes a lot of difference in these places.”<\/p>\n

Coolab has already installed the same kind of networks in Amaz\u00f4nia, in Ubatuba on the north coast of S\u00e3o Paulo, in a quilombo<\/a> and in an indigenous\u00a0Guarani<\/a> village. Vianna explains that the installed networks function as a kind of provider managed by the residents themselves, who set the price (if there are fees at all), and take care of maintenance and services. The collective’s idea is to promote localized use of a community network where residents can upload content they produce themselves. In Mar\u00e9, for example, the work-around can be useful for the safety of projects such as that of the Mar\u00e9 Vive<\/a> collective, which denounces human rights<\/a> violations and functions as a community media<\/a> channel.<\/p>\n

The Parais\u00f3polis favela, in S\u00e3o Paulo’s South Zone, has the same problem as Mar\u00e9. A symbol of S\u00e3o Paulo’s inequality<\/a>, surrounded by mansions and high-rise buildings in the adjacent neighborhood of Morumbi, Parais\u00f3polis is the second largest favela in the city and large sections of the community have no Internet connection.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There, among the large telecommunication companies, only Vivo is available. NET does not operate in the region, but does reach neighboring Morumbi. The rest of the area relies on work-arounds: modems with connection points are cloned and, using cables from the adjacent neighborhood, bring the Internet to the favela. That is how, five years ago, Eduardo Ferreira, a former employee of NET and a Parais\u00f3polis resident, began working on how to circumvent the lack of Internet connectivity in his neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Today, he has a company licensed by Anatel (the National Telecommunications Agency) and operates as a small provider in several peripheral neighborhoods in S\u00e3o Paulo, such as Jardim S\u00e3o Lu\u00eds, Jardim Arpoador, and Carapicu\u00edba. In Parais\u00f3polis, he pays R$15,000 (US$4730) per month for a 1Gb Internet link and redistributes it to 400 clients. For R$50 monthly, each resident has a 10Mb connection, managed by an app on Ferreira’s cell phone.<\/p>\n

Not just any work-around, however, can bridge the digital blackout in peripheral areas. In fact, the simple offer of a connection may be considered illegal by Anatel, which does not recommend Internet sharing. In addition, it is a crime to distribute telecommunications services without authorization from the agency.<\/p>\n

This is the second article in a\u00a0four-part series on Internet access<\/a> in favelas and urban peripheries in Brazil. Don’t miss part one here<\/a>. For the entire original article in Portuguese by\u00a0Escola de Jornalismo \u00c9nois and data_labe<\/em>\u00a0published by Nexo Jornal click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas This is the second article in a\u00a0four-part series on Internet access access in favelas and urban peripheries in Brazil. Don’t miss part one here. For the entire original article in Portuguese […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":41335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1294,1288,1271,1282,329,1330],"tags":[1594,1303,258,280,910,1974,506,2249,203,749,2160,37,464,406,2634,2645,1403,128],"writer":[2627,2626],"translator":[2603,2483],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-communitymedia","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-favelaqualities","10":"category-research-analysis","11":"category-solutions","12":"category-translation","13":"tag-gato","14":"tag-communication-rights","15":"tag-community-solution","16":"tag-complexo-da-mare","17":"tag-creative-organizing","18":"tag-creativity","19":"tag-exclusion","20":"tag-gambiarra","21":"tag-inequality","22":"tag-internet","23":"tag-mare-vive","24":"tag-north-zone","25":"tag-paraisopolis","26":"tag-sao-paulo","27":"tag-series","28":"tag-series-broken-connection","29":"tag-solution","30":"tag-technology","31":"writer-data_labe","32":"writer-escola-de-jornalismo-enois","33":"translator-cheyne-bull","34":"translator-desiree-poets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41333"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=41333"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=41333"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=41333"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=41333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}