Telefônica|Vivo and Ericsson bring wireless access to education for community in Rio de Janeiro

More than 3,000 children and teenagers Rio de Janeiro’s Vila Cruzeiro area will get access to education
Two public schools and a local NGO, Social Attitude, will receive free wireless coverage
Project initiated by Connect To Learn – a global education initiative using ICT to bring 21st-century education to students everywhere
Telefônica|Vivo and Ericsson have established a partnership to support 3,000 children and teenagers living in Vila Cruzeiro, a community in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to have internet access via broadband and services over the cloud.

Vivo will provide the broadband connection and Ericsson will provide the ICT solution and educational.tools to two public schools – CIEP José Carlos Brandão Monteiro, and Joracy Camargo –, and a local nongovernmental organization (NGO) called Social Attitude.

The schools and the NGO will receive netbooks with wireless connectivity, enabling both students and teachers to freely access educational content on the cloud. This initiative, at Vila Cruzeiro, is made possible by Connect To Learn, which offers ICT solutions in secondary schools to provide access to high-quality content, as well as providing multi-year scholarships for students to enroll in those schools.

Luciene Dias, Regional Director, Telefônica|Vivo, explains that the connectivity offered in this partnership will give greater potential for Internet usage in the schools. “Telefónica Foundation will reinforce the competence and knowledge development to use these technologies in the schools.”

Besides the connectivity, the operator through Telefônica Foundation, also supports the Municipal Education Office of Rio de Janeiro.and UNESCO in training interns that act as instructors to use technology in the digital classes for the 150 schools in a program called Escolas do Amanhã (in English “Schools of Tomorrow”).

Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, Vice President of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility at Ericsson, says: “All children are entitled to have access to education, but some of the world’s young people are still being left behind. Connect To Learn’s mission is to use the power of ICT to ensure that a 21st-century education is available to all.”

This initiative uses a cloud-based ICT solution developed by Ericsson and other Connect To Learn partners for schools, and uses the on-the-ground experience of partner NGOs. The solution is designed for users who have little or no technical competence. Improved access and reduced costs are possible because users do not have to worry about the complexities of virus protection, software updates, application installation or maintenance. Instead, these tasks are managed in the cloud.

Notes to editors

About Connect To Learn

Connect To Learn was launched in 2010 by the Earth Institute at Columbia University, which provides solutions for sustainable development; Ericsson; and Millennium Promise, a New York-based NGO that works to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. The program aims to ensure that children all over the world, especially girls, have access to high-quality education resources. The Connect To Learn partners recognize the transformational role that broadband connectivity and other ICT solutions can have in scaling up access to quality learning opportunities through innovative programs such as cloud-based educational resources and school-to-school connectivity. The initiative also provides scholarships to promote transition to secondary school for students who face extraordinary challenges, especially girls. Since the launch of the program, ICT-based teaching and learning resources have been made accessible to students in countries across Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Arab world. Connect To Learn helps enable students and teachers at schools in rural villages and urban centers to use the Internet, connecting children around the world and inspiring young people by providing them with new learning opportunities. http://www.connecttolearn.org

About Telefônica | Vivo

Telefônica|Vivo is the largest telecommunications company In Brazil, with more than 90 million access, being 75.3 million only in the mobile operation, in which is the leader in market share (29,63%) and 40% market share at the data segment. Telefônica|Vivo offers fixed telephony services within Sao Paulo state and mobile telephony within the whole country, besides its complet and convergent portfolio (fixed and mobile voice, fixed and mobile broadband, high speed broadband over fiber, TV, data and IT). The company is present in more than 3,700 Brazilian cities, in which 2,800 of them are covered by Vivo’s 3G network – more than the total amount of cities covered.with 3G by other operators. Brazil is the largest operation for Telefônica in the world by number of subscribers and employees (around 100,000). Main companies in the country are Telefônica Brasil (Telefônica|Vivo), Atento (call center) and Terra (webportal and internet provider). Telefônica Group is one of the largest communications group in the world, present in 25 countries, having 309 million subscriptions, 289,000 employees and revenues of EUR 62,8 billion (2011). Investments forecasted for Brazil within 2011-2014 period accounts for BRL 24,3 billion.

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