Brasilia, Brazil. Photo by georg_neu, available under a creative commons license.

[Via Satellite 08-23-2016] Mobile satellite communications provider MVS USA is deploying its Election Network for Brazil to provide remote communications services for the country’s upcoming 2016 elections. The network will enable votes of citizens living in outlying areas to be counted.

MVS’ Election Network is a temporary closed-circuit network capable of transporting election data via satellite securely to government authorized receiving points. This year in Brazil, MVS’ private network will support nearly 1,400 MVS SIM cards activated in Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) terminals across the country during the two rounds of elections.

On Election Day in Brazil, the MVS Election Network will transmit data collected from 16 states, 380 cities and 1,269 localities as mayoral and city councilor elections get underway. The communications network is backed entirely by MVS’ technical support services and includes a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a firewall, data encryption technology and enhanced redundancy.

MVS supported elections in Brazil in 2012 and 2014, and has been building and managing remote communications networks to support elections around the globe for the past five years. Beyond Brazil, the company has supported elections in the Ivory Coast, Ecuador and the Philippines.