Intel brings WiMax broadband to the Amazon

Intel will spend $1bn to accelerate technology access for people in developing communities

Intel claimed today to have brought wireless broadband to one of the most remote and uninhabited places on Earth.

The project to connect up Parintins, a town with 114,000 residents on an island in the Amazon river, forms part of the chip vendor's World Ahead programme.

Intel will spend more than $1bn globally over the next five years on initiatives to accelerate technology access for people in developing communities.

Working with the Brazilian government and business and education officials, Intel and its collaborators 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.

"Technology has expanded what is possible in Parintins," said Intel chairman Craig Barrett at a dedication ceremony today in the Amazon rainforest.

"It is now a place where wireless broadband links to the internet bring the expertise of specialists, sophisticated medical imaging and the world's libraries to a community reachable only by airplane or boat."

Frank Bi Garcia, mayor of Parintins, said: "We are really isolated and do not have the conditions to receive the internet with cables. So we are receiving it wireless from antennas and satellites. Access to wireless internet is a great pleasure for us."

Goncala Do Nacimento Pinto Filha, a teacher in Parintins, added: "The student, from the moment he gets in touch with other people, other cultures, with other information beyond the borders of his country, he gets a lot of benefits."

The wireless infrastructure includes short-range Wi-Fi radio transmissions and WiMax, which has an extended transmitting range of up to 30 miles.