To operate its backbone and ensure service to the education, research, health and culture communities, RNP has points of presence (PoPs) spread across the 27 units of the federation. In Piauí, PoP-PI is housed at FAPEPI and has 3Gbps access capacity, as well as technical and administrative staff who are responsible for ensuring access to the Ipê network for its end users.

In the past - until mid-2011 - institutions needed leased point-to-point links from telecom operators to interconnect their campuses to the RNP network and, as a general rule, the price of circuits doubles with four times the capacity. This consequently generated considerable expenses, for example, for a 1Gbps clear channel data circuit, the monthly contracting costs were approximately R $ 45 thousand. Thus, a 1Gbps connection would have an estimated annual cost of R $ 540 thousand.

It is currently using the POTI Network - Piauí Metropolitan Network - that institutions connect to PoP-PI through a high-speed fiber optic connection enabling the use of more modern communication applications. In POTI Network, an institution qualified by consortium, pays per site, only $ 4,229.08 monthly generating an annual cost of only $ 50,748.69.

Given the above, the use of fiber optic infrastructure to deploy dedicated networks in the metropolitan area substantially reduces the cost of operating a high-speed network. These are transmission rates whose prices are absolutely unreachable with the current model of telecommunication circuit rental.