Telecom News --

The buses of Brazil: Connectivity in Curitiba

19 January, 2011

Anyone who commutes to and from work by bus knows that it is not always the most exciting part of the day. But what if the bus were connected to a high-speed mobile broadband network that not only facilitated access for your devices, but also provided up-to-the-second information on a range of related services? What if you lived in Curitiba in southern Brazil? In Curitiba, it’s already possible.

Curitiba is the first city in the world to implement a new LTE-based public transportation solution developed by Ericsson and Dataprom, a Brazilian supplier of public transport solutions.
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Curitiba’s 3.2 million citizens can benefit from the Electronic Ticketing and Fleet Management Systems solution, which provides a wide range of information about the city’s bus fleet to URBS (Society of Urbanization of Curitiba). URBS is the bus controller responsible for the operation and supervision of Curitiba’s public transit system.

Marcos Valente Isfer, President of URBS, explains that while the solution currently focuses mostly on ticket payment and positioning information, there is a range of opportunities for the future.

"As we have the buses connected with mobile broadband, we are now able to implement endless solutions," he says.

"For example, we can inform people how long they will have to wait for the next bus; we can offer direct communication regarding public campaigns and services to the passengers on the bus; and we can also develop a security system in which all images are locally stored and only sent when we request them or when an emergency button is pressed."

The overall purpose of the project is to improve not only public transport, but Curitiba as a whole.

"We aim to be a role model in sustainability, " Isfer says. "With this solution, we can have better fleet management. We can reduce the time spent on buses, which reduces carbon emissions and improves our sustainability."

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