Dilma wants broadband of at least 1MB

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff reviewed the National Broadband Plan and wants telecom operators to offer popular broadband connections of at least 1MB for R$35 ($22,19) per month as opposed to the current speeds of 600KB.

According to a piece published on Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo on Sunday, Dilma told Communications minister Paulo Bernardo to start negotiating the changes this week. Dilma is apparently willing to “end this kilobits business and start talking about megabits” when it comes to the minimum speeds offered by internet service providers (ISPs).

When the subject is broadband Brazil is well behind countries such as South Korea, where the government plans to give citizens connection speeds of 1GB by 2012.

The president is also taking the view that the local telcos will have to dig into their own pockets to adapt to the new demands instead of asking the government for money, according to the article.

However, Dilma has already understood that the government may need to allow the ISPs to enter the booming paid television market, which is currently restricted to them. This would in theory bring in the cash needed to adapt to her demands for faster internet access and generate real results around the National Broadband Plan.

Discussions around new laws that would open the TV market to national and foreign companies are currently taking place.

President Dilma is now in China, where companies are showing interest in the potential business opportunities to be generated by widespread internet access. Telco giant Huawei has already said it wants to open a $350m research and development center in the São Paulo city of Campinas.
Image by Fotos Gov/Ba licensed under Creative Commons.