The Government publishes the provisional resolution of the aid that will bring ultra-fast connectivity to more than 720,000 homes and companies

10/10/2022

Spain Digital 2026. The network that connects us. Join the digital shift.

50 projects will receive support of 244.6 million euros from the UNICO Broadband program of 2022 to extend ultra-fast broadband to homes and companies throughout the territory

The program will mobilize a public-private investment of around 390 million euros to implement the projects committed in the call, helping to close the connectivity gap

This deployment of digital infrastructures focused on ‘white and grey areas’, isolated and dispersed, is financed with funds from the Recovery Plan and aligned with the objectives of the Spain Digital 2026 agenda. Among them, 100% of the population will have access to very high capacity connections by 2025

Spain is a European leader in connectivity, with broadband coverage at 30Mbps 96%, -91% in rural areas-, and 88.3% at a rate of 100 Mbps

A total of 50 projects will receive support amounting to EUR 244.6 million from the UNICO Broadband programme of 2022 to extend ultra-fast broadband to households and businesses throughout the territory.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, through the State Secretariat for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, has published the draft provisional resolution of the second call for the UNICO-Broadband Program that will allow the extension of very high capacity connections (at least 100 Mbps) to 728,500 new households and enterprises in the territory.

At the end of the evaluation process of the 159 applications submitted, it has been provisionally decided to grant 50 projects aid amounting to 244.6 million euros (95% of the budgeted amount), continuing the first call for the UNICO-Broadband program resolved in 2021 and endowed with 250 million euros.

With this new line of aid financed with the funds Next GenerationEUWithin the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, a public-private investment of 388.2 million euros will be mobilized, which is in addition to the 1.120 million mobilized since 2018. These investments have enabled us to bring ultra-fast broadband connections to more than four million homes and businesses by 2021.

The UNICO-Broadband 2022 aid program will allow access to very high capacity infrastructures to more than 728,000 households and companies throughout the national territory. Of these, more than 137,000 are located in Galicia; 110,000, in Castilla y León; and 109,000 in Andalusia.

The list of approved projects is available here. Most are ‘white zones’, those that do not have coverage of speed networks of at least 30 Mbpsand no plans for their funding over the next three years. The rest will be developed in grey areas, those that only have broadband coverage or forecasts for its provision within 3 years by a single operator, which does not allow it to exceed 100 Mbps.

About UNICO-Broadband

Under the umbrella of the Universalization of Digital Infrastructures for Cohesion (UNICO) program, the main investments of the Recovery Plan for the digital transformation of the country in the field of digital connectivity are being channeled. In particular, UNICO-Broadband aims to achieve a coverage rate of very high capacities of 100% of the population by 2025.

Once the projects benefiting from the UNICO-Broadband programme are implemented, the coverage rate will reach 95% in line with the universal connectivity set for 2025.

The Recovery Plan has provided for an investment of 2 billion euros until 2023 to extend and improve digital infrastructures, strengthen territorial cohesion and face the demographic challenge. The goal, also included in the Spain Digital 2025 agenda, is that 100% of the Spanish population will have broadband coverage by 2025.

Currently, Spain is a leader in connectivity in Europe, occupying the third position, according to the latest Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), prepared by the European Commission. The latest coverage report from the Secretary of State for Telecommunications indicated that 96% of the Spanish population had broadband coverage at 30MbpsIn June 2021 - 91% in rural areas - and 88.3% had coverage of at least 100% Mbps.