Kate’s Blog

Now scientists and military personnel working on the island will have broadband Internet access via satellite and will be connected to the public telephony network in the rest of the country. It will now allow them to keep in contact with other Navy bases, their families, other research centers in Brazil, and the world at large. This new system replaces former solutions that were expensive and unreliable; based on high frequency radio and narrow band satellite systems.

The scientists often away from their families and the rest of society for months on end will now be able to stay in touch, through videoconferences with webcams.

The project included the installation of a satellite dish 3.6 meters in diameter, which provided Comsat with valuable experience that can be used in similar endeavors in the future. The Brazilian Navy wants to set up a similar system for the Scientific Station in the São Pedro and São Paulo Archipelago. These ten rocky islands, located 700 kilometers from the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, are of strategic importance in controlling the country’s territorial waters and guaranteeing sovereignty over its Exclusive Economic Zone.

Further, a small part of the subsalt is on the Brazilian continental shelf but in international waters, beyond the EEZ, thus allowing any other country to explore it. To guarantee sovereignty for the purpose of managing natural resources in the area, in 2004, the Brazilian government submitted a proposal to the United Nations Organization asking for rights on 960,000 square meters of the continental shelf – which would be a natural continuation of Brazilian territory. It is the so-called Blue Amazon which would cover 1,500,000 square kilometers in addition to the 3,500,000 square kilometers established by the EEZ, totaling 5 million square kilometers of maritime area. It is an enormous area with immeasurable natural resources. The UNO has not given a final opinion.