Galicia will have 100% high-speed digital connectivity with the support of the Recovery Plan
01/06/2021
The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, Roberto Sánchez, today shared with the Galician Federation of Municipalities and Provinces the plans of the Government to extend connectivity to 100% of the population and accelerate the deployment of 5G networks and services. “In 2025 there will be no population in Galicia that does not have access to high-speed networks” he assured.
The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, Roberto Sánchez, today shared with the Galician Federation of Municipalities and Provinces the plans of the Government to extend connectivity to 100% of the population and accelerate the deployment of 5G networks and services. “In 2025 there will be no population in Galicia that does not have access to high-speed networks” he assured.
These objectives are part of the government’s strategy to face the Demographic Challenge and are articulated through the Plan for Digital Connectivity and Infrastructures and the 5G Technology Boost Strategy.
Both plans have funds for their investments from the European Union’s Resilience and Recovery Mechanism, EUR 2 billion to extend connectivity, EUR 1.5 billion for 5G deployment and EUR 500 million to boost a cybersecurity ecosystem, and are included in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
The Secretary of State made a brief review of the investments made within the framework of the Broadband Extension Program (PEBA-NGA) in Galicia: more than 102 million euros of aid since 2013, when this program cofinanced with FEDER funds was launched, of which more than half (80 million euros) were awarded in projects in the last three calls (2018, 2019 and 2020).
In the last call of the PEBA-NGA, resolved on March 4, aid amounting to 13 million euros was awarded to extend broadband in 2,617 unique entities of population to 56,159 homes and companies. Of these, 26,530 are in Lugo, 14,030 in A Coruña, 10,047 in Ourense and 5,552 in Pontevedra.
Thanks to these investments, it has been possible to increase in recent years (2018, 2019 and 2020) the coverage to 30Mbps by 32 points, which is now 95.07%. In this way, the digital divide with the rest of Spain disappears, whose coverage with networks at this speed is 95.19%.
The coverage at 100 Mbps in Galicia was just 59% in 2017. Since then it has increased 13 points and in 2020 it reached 72.15% of the Galician population. When ongoing projects are completed, fixed network coverage at speeds ≥ 100 is estimated to reach 83.67% of the population by 2022.
Plan for Connectivity
The Plan for Digital Connectivity and Infrastructure It runs until 2025, when the goal of 100% coverage with 100 Mbps networks for the entire population will be met. The Plan also makes it a priority for 100% of socio-economic engines to have a scalable connection to one gigabit per second by 2025, one of the objectives of the European strategy “the Gigabit Society”.
As far as SMEs are concerned, a programme will be launched to provide digital connectivity vouchers for small and medium-sized enterprises participating in public programmes to promote their digitisation.
Spain, Data Hub is another axis of the Plan that includes measures to project our country as a pole of attraction for investments in data infrastructures and to become a cross-border connection point for the European Union.
Finally, the Plan includes two transversal axes, one related to regulatory reform and public information systems (which includes the approval of the new general law of Telecommunications), and another to the renovation of telecommunications infrastructures in buildings, including measures to support energy efficiency.
For its part, the 5G Technology Drive Strategy Its main objective is to accelerate the deployment of this technology that allows hyper connectivity (permanent, high-capacity and high-speed connections between people and machines), so it has a great disruptive effect for the economy and can also serve as a vector for extending the coverage of high-speed networks.
The Strategy consists of three axes. The first includes actions to facilitate the availability of priority bands for 5G services. In this sense, Spain already auctioned in 2018 one of the priority frequency bands, the 3.5 GHz, which has boosted the first commercial offers of the operators, and has just published the order of bases for the auction of the 700 MHz band that will be held in July.
The second axis establishes measures to support the deployment of networks, in particular in transport corridors, both road and rail, and singular points such as airports.
The third axis incorporates measures to create a regulatory and administrative framework that fosters an investment climate, such as the Cybersecurity Law 5G, which must transpose into the Spanish legal system the instruments and measures (toolbox) that the Member States of the European Union have agreed to create a safe and reliable environment that encourages deployment and encourages adoption.
Broadband Coverage Data
Speed Galicia (Jun-2017) Galicia (Jun-2020) Es