ANSP PROJECT

The ANSP project, as determined by a decision of FAPESP's Board of Trustees, “provides the State of São Paulo research community with state of the art computer networking connectivity.”

After almost twenty years of Internet as a commercial activity in the Brazilian and international markets, there is a whole host of companies dedicated to providing all types of services related to the Internet and computer networks in general. There are also thousands of companies producing every kind of application geared to every type of community. Why, then, ANSP? Why a project, the core activity of which is to provide network connectivity to universities and research centers in the State of São Paulo?

The answer is that commercial enterprises, whether large or small, in order to survive in the market, have to provide the kind of service that can be classified as “guaranteed”: a standardized, extensively tested service, that satisfies the requirements of “good connectivity” and low costs, ensuring at the same time, profits for the provider and customer satisfaction.

However, researchers from universities and research centers in the State of São Paulo, responsible for almost 50% of Brazilian scientific production, need more than just a good and low-cost service. Their research projects often require services and products that are still in the pre-commercial stage or on the medium and long-term business road map. These researchers need a connectivity provider that can deliver an outstanding service, at the most up to date level, with a standard of quality that serves as an example for their students and a model or testbed for private companies that operate in the area.

Academic researchers in São Paulo, with rising levels of excellence, have to cope with ever-increasing volumes of information and critical data and seek increasingly advanced means of communication, ever-broader bandwidths, and increasingly complex services, which are accessible and reliable. This is the focus of ANSP.