Infrastructures and Security News Vale do Minho with New Generation Network Vale do Minho with New Generation Network
- 26/09/2008
The Vale do Minho Digital Forum took place on 29 and 30 September 2008 in Melgaço with a round of workshops on the first day followed on the second by the presentation of the results of the Vale do Minho Digital project.
This project, which was approved in September 2005, is one of the 33 projects forming part of Digital Cities and Digital Regions which has been carried out throughout Portugal in order to implement the Digital Portugal project, envisaged in 2000 as part of the Operational Information Society Programme (POSI), and later continued in the Knowledge Society Operational Programme (POSC). Together these projects cover 287 of the country’s 308 municipalities and cover roughly 95% of the entire national territory.
The Vale do Minho Digital project has resulted from a partnership established between the Intermunicipal Community of Vale do Minho, which brings together the municipalities of Melgaço, Monção, Paredes de Coura, Valença and Vila Nova de Cerveira, the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, the Cultural Development Project of Vila Nova de Cerveira, the Parents and Friends Association of Mentally Handicapped Citizens, business organisations and teaching institutions.
With a total investment of over 200 million euros, the Digital Cities and Digital Regions projects entail e-government solutions for local government, conditions to beef up the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises and a wide array of citizen-centred services, such as information, health and safety, social support, education, culture, etc.
The sessions held to present the results of the Vale do Minho Digital project included a session on New Generation Networks, chaired by the President of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC). Linked to the Vale do Minho Digital project, and currently under way in the same region is the Community Network project for Vale do Minho, which has also been promoted by the Intermunicipal Community of Vale do Minho covering the 5 councils mentioned above. This project has already built 104 Km of the envisaged 135 Km network of fibre optic cabling which will shortly enable the Vale do Minho to become part of the restricted set of regions with New Generation Networks, which enable good broadband connections using fibre optics.
This network and the Valimar Net Community Network has established a ring in the Vale do Lima linking the five main offices of the Vale do Minho council, the six main offices of the Vale do Lima council, the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, various industrial parks and technological centres, the Wind Farm Network and the Logistical Platform of Valença, with a total extension of more than 375 Km, which will enable high broadband connections of between 1 and 10 Gigabits per second.
The main objectives of the Vale do Minho Community Network are to fight e-exclusion, promoting equal opportunities and universal public broadband access in the region, to rectify asymmetries in telecommunications accessibility, and to develop entrepreneurial technological and scientific business initiatives in the region.
The promoter is responsible for carrying out and laying the service, with technical aid provided by the Viana do Castelo Polytechnic Institute.
The Vale do Minho Community Network should be finished by the end of this year and will link to the Science, Technology and Society Network (RCTS) Science, Technology and Society Network (RCTS) which for ten years has ensured a broadband connectivity to the scientific and higher educational communities. This network was approved within a public tender to support the design and construction of Community Networks, which was opened in 2006 through the Knowledge Society Operational Programme (POSC), an entity run by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education.
The Community Networks are public broadband networks in less well-off areas or where there are gaps in the telecommunications market. They have to be neutral with regard to competing technological solutions (e.g. copper, fibre optics, GSM/GPRS, UMTS, FWA, WiMax, Power Line, etc.). They have to show economic sustainability and provide equal access to all operators in tenders opened for their running. They have to make it possible to take advantage of existing infrastructures belonging to municipal water, or similar, companies, and may complement communications infrastructures set up as part of Digital Cities and Digital Regions projects in regions which meet the aforementioned criteria for these types of networks.
The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) set up and operates the Technical Support Commission (CAT) which supports proponents in developing the application process and monitors implementation of the projects that are approved.
As part of the aforementioned tender, approval was given in April 2007 to four Community Networks projects, including the Vale do Minho project and also broadband Community Networks projects in Vale do Lima, Terra Quente Transmontana and in the District of Évora which together form a network more than 1 000 Km in length, involving a total investment of 34 million Euros.