The Government will invest 883 million in connectivity and deployment of 5G technology in 2021

The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, Roberto Sánchez, today presented the guidelines of the Plan for the Connectivity of people, companies and territories, and the Strategy for the promotion of 5G technology to the Permanent Telecommunications Commission of the Consultative Council for Digital Transformation.

During the meeting, which was held telematically, the structure, axes, main measures and budget of both plans have been presented in order to gather the opinion and comments of the Permanent Commission on Telecommunications and Audiovisual a forum for public-private collaboration in which telecommunications operators, manufacturers, installers, service providers, consultancy and integrators linked to the telecommunications and audiovisual sector are represented, as well as experts, economic and social entities.

The Commission is one of the two members of the Consultative Council for Digital Transformation, created last September, whose objective is to advise the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.

The Secretary of State recalled that connectivity and 5G technology are projects included in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan that allocates 33% of the funds foreseen in the period 2021-2023 to digitization.

The Plan for the Connectivity of people, companies and territories, which has a time horizon until 2025, will already have a budget of 583 million euros in the year 2021 within the framework of the Spain Digital 2025 agenda. It contains actions in two major areas: “Connectivity for all” with measures to move towards 100% coverage at 100 Mbps and “Connectivity to transform the economy” with measures to boost the competitiveness of companies, especially SMEs.

Its measures include actions to provide connectivity to industrial estates and other technological islands, as well as the implementation of deployments that accompany the projects of the digitalization tractor sectors included in the Spain Digital 2025 agenda: agri-food, health, mobility, tourism and trade.

For its part, the 5G technology impulse strategy, which also extends until 2025, will have a budget in 2021 of 300 million. It continues with the work begun with the National Plan 5G 2018-2020, which has contributed to Spain being the European country with the largest number of cities with available 5G services and pilot projects where possible applications of this technology are tested.

The 5G Impulse Strategy contains measures to promote a rapid deployment of the networks that allow to obtain the benefits of the economic transformation that this technology promises from the first moment, complementing the deployment actions planned by the operators. In the same sense, deployments will be promoted on the main axes of the transport corridors, on the cross-border and on secondary roads. In addition, it includes measures to activate the use of 5G in sectoral digitization tractor projects.

Spain Digital 2025

The Spain Digital 2025 agenda includes around fifty measures grouped in ten strategic axes with which it is intended to promote the process of digital transformation of the country over the next five years.

The Plan for the Connectivity of people, companies and territories and the Strategy for the promotion of 5G technology are commitments that are part of the first two axes of Spain Digital 2025. They aim to expand connectivity and promote the deployment of 5G networks, reducing digital gaps and contributing to the vertebration of the territory.