The Government of Santa Catarina, through the Digital Rural Communities Pilot Project, R $ 5.5 million to bring the Internet to 11 municipalities of the State. In Bocaina do Sul, in the state of Santa Catarina, the system is already working and transforming the lives of farmers in eight rural communities.
In order to make Internet access available in Bocaina do Sul, the State Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and the SC Rural Program invested R $ 510,000 in the installation of four signal repeater antennas – a tower located in the city hall and other repeater antennas in the communities of Campinas, Miners, Peach trees. The structure allows that eight of the 14 rural communities of the municipality have access to the services – the coverage reaches 80% of the municipality.
The system is already fully operational and, so far, 550 users are registered to use the public internet in this first phase of testing. To receive the signal in their homes, rural producers must acquire an antenna and a wireless router device, with an average cost estimated at $ 600.