● With this program, the Government encourages the early deployment of 5G in localities with less than 10,000 inhabitants
● The grants provide 5G to 7,330 sites and facilitate coverage on 30,000 kilometers of roads
● The list of adjudicators can consult in this link
Madrid, May 30, 2024.- The Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, through the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, has published the provisional resolution of the call for the UNICO Active Networks program, which will allocate 508 million euros to bring the necessary infrastructure that provides 5G coverage to more than 1.8 million inhabitants of small municipalities. The Government thus continues its strategy to digitally structure Spain, now expanding mobile connectivity with this technology also to smaller population centers, so that they can take advantage of the great economic and social capabilities it provides.
Through this investment, the active, passive equipment and infrastructures necessary to develop this technology will be provided to rural areas in municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants where there is no 4G mobile coverage of at least 50 Mbps in the downward direction, and is not foreseen in the next three years. It will benefit more than 1.8 million inhabitants of small towns, which will see 7,330 sites throughout Spain (174 of them newly created) access 5G coverage, in addition to providing coverage to 30,000 kilometers of the road network.
This task will be carried out by the four operators benefiting from this call, which will mobilize more than 566 million euros. Telefónica has been the participating company that has received the highest amount of aid, with more than 298 million euros and an allocation of 4,123 locations. For its part, Orange Spain exceeds 115 million euros to enable from 5G to 1,505 sites, Vodafone Spain assumes more than 66 million euros with 1,220 sites assigned, and the UTE Avatel-Xfera has achieved more than 28 million to provide 5G to 482 sites.
The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, María González Veracruz, has celebrated this provisional resolution that “is going to benefit millions of Spaniards who live or visit small municipalities, and who will be able to take advantage of all the possibilities that 5G offers and apply them in agricultural activities, tourism or in the improvement of the daily life of its inhabitants through a more efficient and accurate provision of public services.”
“We are talking about doing technological social justice, a key priority of the Government in the territorial cohesion of our country. We have closed the fixed digital divide by ensuring ultra-fast broadband access with high fiber deployment and satellite service ‘Conectate35.es’, and now with this huge public investment we are going to bring 5G to hundreds of villages that this technology would probably not reach in years as it is not economically profitable for private initiative.”
The UNICO Active Networks program is funded by the European funds Next Generation EU within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and the call has been resolved in competitive competition aimed at operators who provide 5G service. This call is the largest investment in history launched in Spain to deploy technology.
This program is a pioneer in Europe by allocating European funds to finance active equipment that extends the territorial deployment of 5G with full functionality (Stand Alone) in small municipalities. With this call and the already resolved program of UNICO 5G Networks Backhaul, to bring the optical fiber to the sites, the Government adds more than 1,000 million euros invested to promote the early deployment of 5G infrastructures, in collaboration with the private sector, in municipalities less than 10,000 inhabitants to avoid the territorial gap.
5G and 6G technology boost strategy
The Government’s 5G and 6G strategy aims to advance the structuring of the territory by leading the deployment of these technologies in Europe, investing around 1.5 billion euros. The aim is to exploit the capabilities of 5G and 6G as transformative elements of the economy and society.
To this end, it has implemented programs for each of the phases of development of these new mobile communication technologies in Spain with more than 318 million grants, from the development of pilot projects and use cases – through Red.es-, the integration of technology in industrial value chains (UNICO 5G Sectorial), to research and innovation in the next technological generations (UNICO R+D 5G advanced and 6G).
In addition, Spain has been one of the first countries in the European Union to have completed the allocation of the entire 5G spectrum, in addition to having dedicated 450 Mhz for self-provision and industrial use, and the increase in caps to allow operators to better manage traffic increases.