The development of pilot projects is one of the key actions to achieve the objectives of the National Plan 5G.
The National 5G Plan identifies a series of measures to be developed, structured in several axes of action, one of which corresponds to the National 5G Plan. “Boosting 5G technology: Network pilots and services and R&D&I activities”, including the development of pilot projects and management driven use cases aimed at enabling operators, suppliers, equipment manufacturers and industry in general to experiment with new technology to develop 5G ecosystems and ensure adequate future delivery of services and identify new business models. This includes the provision of one or more calls for assistance for the development of pilot projects, which will aim both to compare the new technological capabilities of the infrastructures and their ability to support innovative applications.
In addition, with the impulse of these pilot experiences, the Administration seeks to promote an early demand that facilitates experimenting with the different potentialities of this technology, promote the development of ecosystems among operators, technology and solution providers and other agents involved, all of this to facilitate the introduction of 5G technology in a fast and agile way in our country when technology and the market reach the degree of maturity necessary for mass commercial deployments. In addition, the Ministry, in its capacity as promoter of the Plan, will acquire from the pilot experiences a greater knowledge on aspects related to the efficient use of frequencies and those other issues related to network deployments and provision of 5G services, which can serve as a reference for possible regulatory measures that act as enablers of the deployment of 5G networks.
The experience acquired will make it easier for Spain to be among the most advanced countries in the development of this new technology, so that when 5G technology reaches its technological and commercial maturity, Spain is ready to take full advantage of the opportunities of this fundamental technological paradigm for digital transformation.
By resolution of the Secretary of State for the Information Society and the Digital Agenda, frequency bands were enabled for the realization of pilot projects contemplated in the National Plan 5G. In this way, the availability of the different frequency ranges necessary to be able to develop experiences of deployment of the new networks and launch real use cases that allow to test the most innovative capabilities of 5G technology, such as very high speed mobile broadband communications, high quality and low latency connections and support for the massive connection of devices that will facilitate the massive development of the Internet of Things (IoT).
The radio spectrum that will be made available to each 5G pilot project in the territory where it is executed, is as follows:
- In the 26 GHz band, up to a maximum of 1 GHz.
- In the band of 3.6 to 3.8 GHz, up to a maximum of 100 MHz.
The entities selected for the execution of each of the pilot projects (in this or subsequent calls for public aid) must request and obtain the corresponding authorizations for the use of the spectrum, in the territorial scope of the pilot, in accordance with the provisions of the regulations governing the use of the public radio domain. The duration of the temporary authorisation shall not exceed that of the pilot projects.
First call for public aid
The Council of Ministers of 23 February 2018 authorised the public enterprise entity Red.es to grant grants of 20 million euros, with a maximum intensity of 40%, to promote the development of two 5G pilot projects by the private sector within the framework of the National 5G Plan.
The call for development aid for two 5G technology pilots was resolved in May 2019 with the selection of two projects to be developed in the autonomous communities of Andalusia and Galicia. The aggregate budget of both projects amounts to more than €36 million, of which more than €10 million will be co-financed by Red.es through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The projects that were presented to this first call for public aid had three objectives: to support the deployments of the first 5G networks, to experiment with the network management techniques that allows 5G technology and to develop use cases, with the involvement of all agents - including users - that allow to accredit the three great improvements provided by 5G: very high speed and capacity mobile broadband, ultra-reliable and low latency communications and massive machine-to-machine communications.
For more information, see the subsidy information for 5G pilot projects in the RED.es website
Second call for public aid
The Council of Ministers of 4 October 2019 authorised the public enterprise entity Red.es to grant grants of 45 million euros, with a maximum intensity of 40%, to boost the development of eleven 5G pilot projects by the private sector within the framework of the National 5G Plan.
Due to the availability of these funds, the grant is called in the following Autonomous Communities, being able to reach in each case the amount indicated:
- Andalusia: 13,000,000 €
- Canaries: 1,300,000 €
- Castile-La Mancha: 1.200.000 €
- Castile and Leon: 1,500,000 €
- Catalonia: 5,000,000 €
- Valencian Community: 8.000.000 €
- Extremadura: 1.200.000 €
- Galicia: 5,400,000 €
- Madrid: 5,000,000 €
- Basque Country: 2.200.000 €
- Region of Murcia: 1.200.000 €
For more information, see the subsidy information for 5G pilot projects in the RED.es website.