The approval of Royal Decree-Law 1/1998, of 27 February, on common infrastructures in buildings for access to telecommunication services (hereinafter ICT), and in particular, of the successive technical regulations of development (Royal Decree 279/1999, Royal Decree 401/2003 and Royal Decree 346/2011 today in force) established a new legal regime that, from the perspective of free competition, has allowed to provide buildings with sufficient facilities to attend the reception services of broadcasting and digital television, telephony available to the public and ultra-fast broadband, allowing the planning of such infrastructures in a way that facilitates their future deployment.
However, this advantage does not have all its effects when the buildings were completed before the entry into force of the successive technical regulations of ICT or may be diluted in the event that such infrastructures are maintained inadequately.
The Digital Spain Agenda 2025 includes a set of measures, reforms and investments, articulated in ten strategic axes, aligned with the digital policies marked by the European Commission for the new period. The actions of the Agenda are aimed at promoting a more sustainable and inclusive growth, driven by the synergies of digital and ecological transitions, that reaches the whole of society, marking as one of its objectives the guarantee of adequate digital connectivity for 100% of the population, promoting the disappearance of the digital divide between rural and urban areas (goal 2025: 100% of the population with 100 Mbps coverage).
As part of the effort of the Digital Spain Agenda 2025, the Plan for Connectivity and Digital Infrastructures of Society, the Economy and the Territories, approved by the Council of Ministers on December 1, 2020, contains as measure 14 of its transversal axis 5 the improvement of telecommunications infrastructures in buildings.
The magnitude of the economic, social and health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has demanded a common response at European level that has materialized with the launch of the “Next Generation EU” Recovery Fund, whose objective is to contribute to the process of recovery of the economies of the Union from 2021. Within this Fund, the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, established by Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 12 February, will allow Spain to mobilize an unprecedented volume of investment.
In order to channel these investments, contributing to a solid and sustainable recovery of the Spanish economy, through the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of April 27, 2021, the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) has been approved, which outlines the agenda for the modernization of the Spanish economy using the economic resources that will come from this Fund.
Within the ten lever policies contemplated in the Plan, one of the thirty lines of action that are identified is component 15, Digital connectivity, promotion of cybersecurity and deployment of 5G, which has among its objectives the promotion of digital transformation, betting on 100% of the population to have adequate connectivity, thus promoting the disappearance of the digital divide between rural and urban areas.
In line with the aforementioned Plan for Connectivity, this component 15 of the PRTR includes the investment C15.I4 “Renewal and sustainability of infrastructures. Improvement of the equipment that allows to house the telecommunications infrastructures located in the buildings to optimize the deployment of networks and achieve lower energy consumption”. This measure is intended to contribute to overcoming the crisis situation generated by COVID-19, helping the recovery of all economic sectors, especially, boosting from households the connectivity that facilitates new services such as teleworking, distance education or teleassistance.
This investment could be channelled, if so decided, through an aid programme in the form of grants, intended to offset the costs arising from the upgrading of telecommunications facilities in buildings.