Intel is showcasing wireless broadband to a remote island in South America, demonstrating WiMAX technology and wireless applications in a major public relations campaign.
The project will connect up Parintins, a town with 114,000 residents on an island in the Amazon river. It is part of the chip vendor’s Intel World Ahead Program.
Working with the Brazilian government, equipment collaborators, business and education officials, they installed a WiMax network for a primary healthcare centre, two schools, a community centre and Amazon University.
The firm also donated and installed telemedicine equipment at the health centre and computer labs at the two schools where students and teachers can now connect to the outside world for the first time.
Short-range Wi-Fi and longer range WiMAX are used to connect to small satellite earth stations. Proxim’s Tsunami MP.16 3500, which connect the buildings, is compliant with the 802.16d-2004 WiMAX standard and uses Intel’s Rosedale WiMAX chipset.
“Technology has expanded what is possible in Parintins,” said Intel chairman Craig Barrett at a dedication ceremony today in the Amazon rainforest.
Intel plans to invest more than $US 1 billion globally over the next five years to accelerate access to computers, the Internet and technology for people in developing communities.
The Intel team negotiated donations for network equipment with Proxim and Cisco and engaged Embratel, the local carrier with their StarOne satellite services and 3.5GHz license in the Amazon. A local system integrator, CPqD, was contracted to coordinate infrastructure work. Participants included the Bradesco Foundation, as well as Amazonas State University, Amazonas Federal University and São Paulo University.
As part of Parintins’ digital makeover, Amazon University is starting a telemedicine program developed jointly with the medical school of Sao Paulo University. The new capabilities — including real-time, video interaction between specialists and patients hundreds of miles apart — give the town’s 32 doctors faster and greater access to the latest medical data or second opinions.
Intel aims to extend wireless PC access to millions of citizens in Latin America and train more than a million teachers about the effective use of technology in the classroom. In Parintins, Intel has currently trained 24 teachers through its education initiatives.
Intel says it expects the technical and social solutions they are helping to develop can be used in other isolated communities including; Africa, Asia and the Middle East, where electricity and telecommunications are unreliable or antiquated and transportation is difficult.
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