Connectivity Providers Database

From: Paulo Petry - Fisheries <petryp@ucs.orst.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <biodiv-l@ftpt.br> Date: Wed, 17 May 95 16:28:07 EST Fellows, Attached is a text that was sent to me by a coleague in Manaus. The issue may not be relevant to all of you, but I would like to bring you to the attention of the problem. If you are a Brazilian subscribing to any of the lists recieving this text, I would ask you to broadcast it to as many coleagues and institutions as possible, and support our quest of keeping our link to the rest of the world on line. More than ever fast communication capabilities is a critical issue to the academic community working in the Amazon. We hope to mobilize enough people to prevent this stupid mistake from happening. Paulo Petry CPBA/INPA petryp@ucs.orst.edu ============================================================= INTERNET IN THE AMAZON: OFF THE AIR PERMANENTLY JUNE 12, 1995 ============================================================= Internet connectivity to the central Brazilian Amazon will be a thing of the past when EMBRATEL, the Brazilian telephone monolith, cuts the satellite link on June 12. It is a question of money. The satellite link to the Amazon costs about $15,000 per month and the Rede Nacional de Pesquisa ( Brazilian National Research Network - the Brazilian Internet ) is balking at the expense. Not to blame the RNP...they have done much with a very minimum of resources. The Brazilian Amazon has had Internet connectivity since September 1994, when two technicians, one Brazilian and one American ( Brazilian permanent resident ), arrived and installed a point-of-presence at INPA. INPA, The Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia ( National Institute for Research of Amazonia ) is located in Manaus, Brazil, near the confluence of the Amazon and Rio Negro rivers. Connectivity was established at first with a nominal 9600 bps dedicated line from Belem. This line gave an actual throughput of around 150 bps (sic). More often than not, the link was so congested that it actually hung, rendering the line useless for parts of the day. The Mean Time Between Failure of the line and its associated modems was ~3 days. A failure meant 24-48 hours off the air. The situation improved in January when a satellite dish was installed and a nominal velocity of 64kbps was established with Brasilia. The link was the first of its kind in Brazil...an experiment to see if Internet connectivity could be supplied by a private satellite dish company (PRODEMGE) over a link with an EMBRATEL satellite. The experiment was a great success. The new link never fell, and supplied sufficient bandwidth for an Internet node that could be taken seriously. The Internet community grew explosively among the scientists, as it does all over the world. I should add at this point, that this link was also the most costly per user in the entire country. Most states outside the metropolitan areas in the south SHARE a single 9600 bps line with other states, if they are lucky enough to have connectivity at all. All the other Brazilian states are, not unjustifiably, hopping mad that Amazonas received this special attention. The experiment was to last four months. The four months ran out, and the link was cut without warning, leaving Amazonia stranded for five days. During these five days, great pressure was exerted by INPA scientists and by scientists from other Amazonian research intitutions to re-establish the link. The RNP partially capitulated and forked over the $15,000 for one more month of connectivity. That was May 12. There is no provision for another month's payment, neither from INPA nor from the RNP. Hence, it is good-bye to the Amazonian Internet on June 12, when the "CONNECTED" light blinks off for the last time. The person writing this letter is the technician that installed and cares for that Internet node. I am not a politician in any sense of the word. This letter is a plea for responsible spokesmen in the international scientific community to enter into contact with the appropriate parties here in Brazil and on the international front to find a solution to this lamentable situation. One possible stopgap would be for the World Bank or some other international organization to arrange emergency funding to guarantee at least three more months connectivity, while here in Brazil we work out a more permanent solution. To these responsible spokesmen, I should give a little insight into the politics concerning the Internet in Brazil at the moment. The RNP is at this moment in the middle of heated negotiations with EMBRATEL concerning the commercialization of Internet access. The State of Amazonas contains less than two percent of the population of the country. Hence, this problem with the Amazonian Internet is on the back burner. There is a certain mistrust, not unfounded, of foreigners meddling in the internal affairs of Brazil, especially when the Amazon is concerned ( just the act of writing this unauthorized letter may cost me my job ). Bear these things in mind when you contact Brazilian entities. Sincerely, Eric C. Anderson Network Manager Centro Regional - Amazonas Rede Nacional de Pesquisa anderson@cr-am.rnp.br (until June 12) telephone 55-92-643-3032 fax 55-92-643-3095 Mailing Address: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia Alameda Cosme Ferreira 1756 - Aleixo CEP 69083-000 Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil