Connectivity Providers Database

From: Carlos Afonso <cafonso@ax.apc.org> To: cafonso@ax.apc.org, cafonso@ax.ibase.org.br, sghuter@nsrc.org CC: sghuter@psg.com Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 01:28:32 -0300 Dear Steve, Date: February 16, 1996 Organization: IBASE-- Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analyses Address: Rua Vicente de Souza 29 City: Rio de Janeiro Country: Brazil Postal Code: 22251-070 Contact Person: Carlos A. Afonso Voice: +55-21-537-8228 Fax: +55-21-537-9185 E-mail: cafonso@ax.ibase.org.br Host/Node Name: AlterNex (ax.apc.org / ax.ibase.org.br) URLs: http://www.ibase.org.br/ http://www.ax.apc.org/ Notes: AlterNex, operated by IBASE since 1989, is the first provider of Internet services outside of the academic community in Brazil. IBASE is a founding member of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), and AlterNex is an APC member network. services provider. Number of users: 6,000. Currently with dial-up centers in Rio and Sao Paulo. ---------------------------------------------------------- Now, the update on the Internet in Brazil: In July, 1995, the Internet Steering Committe (ISC) was nominated by the ministries of Science and Technology and of Communications. It is composed of reps of both ministries, as well as reps of companies, users, providers and academia, and the main objectives are to provide guidelines and norms for the development of the Internet in Brazil, as well as coordinating several task forces (operations, network engineering, education, social applications, etc, etc). The mission of ISC is to oversee the development of national and international computer networks' services for general use in Brazil (i.e, including both private providers' traffic and non-specialized academic traffic). Networks for special scientific applications are being developed also, and strictly academic and non-profit usage might get subsidies for dedicated links to the Internet. ISC works on the principle of trying to guarantee equality of opportunity to prospective Internet service providers, avoiding verticalization or monopoly. As a result, both ministries have ruled that the long-distance telecommunications state monopoly (which also has the satellite services monopoly), EMBRATEL, as well as the local phone companies, cannot provide Internet services to final users, nor engage in partnerships with private companies for this purpose. Their role is to provide dedicated links and dial-up lines to providers. The major task of 1995 for the ISC was to implement phase one of the Internet/BR project, consisting of installing a national backbone with nine E1 (2 Mbps) intercity links and several lower speed links, as well as at least one E1 link (from Sao Paulo) to the US. This was concluded in December, 1995, and the ISC is now working hard to upgrade the international links (by installing an E1 link from Brasilia and another from Rio, both to the US). Plans for 1996 also include extending the Internet/BR backbone to all state capitals, and covering the Amazon region with VSAT technology. Currently, nine of Brazil's largest state capitals, including the federal capital, Brasilia, have points of presence (POPs) of the Internet/BR project at 2 Mbps. The Internet/BR backbone is being subsidized by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology with funds from Law 8248 (contributions as a percentage of gross income from technology companies to research and development). The general idea is similar to the NSFNet process-- to help POP operators to become self-sufficient in 2-3 years and reduce or cut government funds in the process. The probable trend is that the Internet/BR will be run by an institution (probably a national private foundation) which will receive the mandate from the ISC to continue maintenance and development of the network. EMBRATEL operates a POP in Rio de Janeiro with an exclusive international link to the US at 2 Mbps, connected to Internet/BR via a local gateway in Rio (currently at very low speed-- EMBRATEL is under pressure from ISC to upgrade this gateway to 2 Mbps). To this POP EMBRATEL has connected many ISPs, basically through its existing RENPAC (old X.25 packet switching net), which is now overloaded. It seems EMBRATEL did some over-selling of its POP services in the hope to gain clients from Internet/BR, while delaying delivery of circuits to the project despite strong pressure from the ISC. As a result of delays in circuit delivery from EMBRATEL and other TELEBRAS companies, the first phase of the Internet/BR backbone got a nearly 3-month delay. It is the policy of the ISC that private companies can build their own backbones (however, legislation requires they use physical links provided by TELEBRAS companies). As a result, at least two backbones are being implemented, one by IBM and another by Unisys. It is estimated that the Internet in Brazil now has more than 18,000 hosts and more than 100,000 users. Please let me know if you need further info. You can also try the homepage of the ISC: http://www.cr-df.rnp.br/cg/ You can also check our national NIC homepage at: http://www.ci.rnp.br/ Fraternal regards and a big hug to Randy, --c.a.