{"id":41356,"date":"2018-02-27T17:33:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T20:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=41356"},"modified":"2018-03-01T19:53:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:53:14","slug":"broken-connection-part-4-the-invisible-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=41356","title":{"rendered":"Broken Connection Part 4: The Invisible Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is the fourth article in a\u00a0four-part series on Internet access<\/a> in favelas and urban peripheries in Brazil. Don\u2019t miss parts\u00a0one<\/a>,\u00a0two<\/a>, and three<\/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

For\u00a0every ten Brazilians connected to the Internet<\/a>, almost nine are clients of the four biggest Internet companies. According to statistics from\u00a0Teleco<\/a>, a telecommunications consultancy, 83% of Internet provision in Brazil\u00a0is\u00a0in the hands of Claro\/NET, Telef\u00f4nica, Vivo, and TIM.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The scenario is similar to those of\u00a0neighboring countries<\/a>. In other\u00a0Latin American nations, infrastructure and connectivity are also concentrated in the hands of a few companies.\u00a0It’s not a monopoly situation, as there are several companies involved, but it is a situation that\u00a0lawyer and\u00a0Internet Management Committee<\/a>\u00a0council member Fl\u00e1via\u00a0Lef\u00e9vre describes as \u201ccartelized.\u201d The companies organize themselves and together decide where and how they are going to offer their services, like a cartel.\u00a0In practice, the connection of a good part of the Brazilian population is dependent on the four companies that dominate the market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The broadband Internet market in Brazil\u00a0is disputed\u00a0between four large companies that hold the following shares of the consumer market, according to 2017 statistics from\u00a0the consultancy Teleco:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese companies, who own [Internet] provision, talk with each other all the time. They know how each other operate and where they are providing service. As such, there is no competition in the\u00a0market and therefore the companies don’t worry about improving the quality\u00a0or lowering the price, as they are comfortable with this set-up,\u201d says Rafael Zanatta, a lawyer and researcher with the Brazilian\u00a0Consumer Defense Institute (Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor\u2014Idec).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Brazilian Constitution says it is the duty of the federal government<\/a> to guarantee the provision of telecommunications across the country. The rules are set by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), which determines the parameters that\u00a0must be met\u00a0by Internet operators. One\u00a0of\u00a0these requirements is the installation of infrastructure where needed, guaranteeing Internet access to the poorest and most disconnected populations<\/a>. However, in practice, this has not happened. Investment is usually conditional on the economic interest of the companies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProof of this is the unequal distribution that we have today<\/a>, in Brazil, of infrastructure for accessing broadband Internet\u00a0through a fixed network. Even here in the Southeast, in S\u00e3o\u00a0<\/em>Paulo, for example, the infrastructure is concentrated in neighborhoods\u00a0with high income populations who have\u00a0the ability to pay,\u201d says\u00a0Lef\u00e9vre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen businesses think about infrastructure investment, the logic is: I\u2019m going install the cables and I want to have a return from this. I\u2019m not going to put down the cables just for the sake of it.\u201d \u2013 Winston\u00a0Oyadomari, coordinator of the\u00a0Household ICTs\u00a0research<\/a> conducted by the Regional Center of Studies for the Development of the Information Society<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Questioned about the demarcation of\u00a0boundaries\u00a0for business operations, Anatel stated that there are no obligations for universalization on the part of Internet providers.\u00a0The agency only establishes commitments to coverage in its requests for bids, determining the area in which service will be made available by the provider that wins the tender.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We contacted the main Internet providers individually to understand the criteria for network expansion and infrastructure installation. They responded collectively through their union, Sinditelebrasil: \u201cThe products that are to be made available to the population have to be linked to the existence of a real demand capable of making use of the available infrastructure.\u201d It was not clear, however, what criteria define the \u201creal demand.\u201d In the peripheries, the demand exists<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heli\u00f3polis<\/a>, one of the biggest favelas of S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a>, is an example. Its neighbor is S\u00e3o Caetano do\u00a0Sul, a city in S\u00e3o Paulo’s metropolitan region with the highest Human Development\u00a0Index (HDI) figures in Brazil and where, in 2012, more than 70% of residences were equipped with broadband Internet, according to research by the\u00a0Get\u00falio\u00a0Vargas Foundation<\/a>. Still, the favela is not covered by any of the four biggest Internet providers in the region.\u00a0But\u00a0Heli\u00f3polis does have GodNet.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This\u00a0small provider emerged almost by accident. Augusto Santana, a former resident of the region, was a furniture mover and was doing a move in the Justice Tribunal building. Amongst\u00a0the furniture, there were an enormous number of Internet cables that the building’s new owners did not plan to use. Santana was given the cabling, bought a Vivo link, and in 2009 began to provide Internet in\u00a0Heli\u00f3polis.<\/p>\n

In 2013, when fibre optic cables began to be installed in\u00a0S\u00e3o\u00a0Paulo, Santana retired his outsourced distribution\u00a0and invested in his own equipment. With a loan from the\u00a0Caixa\u00a0Econ\u00f4mica\u00a0Federal<\/a>\u00a0bank, Santana bought new cables, went to Paraguay for a course about the technology, and completed his first installation of high-speed Internet. The network runs from Brooklin, the well-to-do neighborhood in S\u00e3o\u00a0Paulo’s South Zone where Santana has a data center (a data processing center, with computers and routers), to the neighborhood of\u00a0Heli\u00f3polis, where it serves 1,700 families. There are 16km of cables connecting the regions.<\/p>\n

With connection speeds ranging from\u00a05\u00a0to\u00a080 Mb\/s and prices that\u00a0range from\u00a0R$79 to R$179 (around US$25-55),\u00a0GodNet\u00a0does not have the big providers\u00a0as competitors. \u201cThey don’t consider me to be competition, really. Which\u00a0is funny because I work where they don’t serve and am offering a better quality service,\u201d he muses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0businessman\u00a0does not intend to introduce data use limits, which the big operators have discussed<\/a>. The companies considered introducing the system of limited data consumption that exists for mobile networks to fixed broadband plans as well, but strong pressure from civil society<\/a> led them to set the project aside.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The proposal was vetoed by the Senate<\/a>, but\u00a0Santana roots for its implementation. \u201cI\u2019m asking God that [Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation Gilberto]\u00a0Kassab implements this data use limit,\u201d he says,\u00a0thinking about business. \u201cThe big businesses\u00a0will adhere to it and I am not planning to do that.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0going to be an additional advantage\u00a0over my competitors. This is going to be my main weapon to get to the level of the big guys, in their areas.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the fourth article in a\u00a0four-part series on Internet access<\/a> in favelas and urban peripheries in Brazil. Don\u2019t miss parts\u00a0one<\/a>,\u00a0two<\/a>, and three<\/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 fourth article in a\u00a0four-part series on Internet access in favelas and urban peripheries in Brazil. Don\u2019t miss parts\u00a0one,\u00a0two, and three. For the entire original article in Portuguese by\u00a0Escola […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":41360,"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":[1288,1290,335,1282,329,1330],"tags":[818,1303,109,258,2646,445,506,1810,203,749,865,406,2634,2645,1403,128,1340],"writer":[2627,2626],"translator":[2483,2582],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-policies","10":"category-research-analysis","11":"category-solutions","12":"category-translation","13":"tag-caixa-economica","14":"tag-communication-rights","15":"tag-community-business","16":"tag-community-solution","17":"tag-digital-divide","18":"tag-entrepreneurship","19":"tag-exclusion","20":"tag-heliopolis","21":"tag-inequality","22":"tag-internet","23":"tag-micro-business","24":"tag-sao-paulo","25":"tag-series","26":"tag-series-broken-connection","27":"tag-solution","28":"tag-technology","29":"tag-translation-2","30":"writer-data_labe","31":"writer-escola-de-jornalismo-enois","32":"translator-desiree-poets","33":"translator-jiselle-steele"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41356","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=41356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41356"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=41356"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=41356"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=41356"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=41356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}