Las Palmas, 2.9512861 euros; holy cross of Tenerife, 10,006.136 euros. This is the result of the distribution of funds for the Canary Islands to cover the investments for the deployment of 5G technology, communicated yesterday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. Sources consulted point out that this interprovincial asymmetry –77.21% in the west and 22.78% in the east– in the distribution of the Next Generation dedicated to the telecommunications chapter is explained by the greater concentration of municipalities that are difficult to access and small in size. in Tenerife, La Gomera, The Palm and The iron.
Last February. Movistar communicated the 700 megahertz 5G rollout status that until now had been achieved in the autonomous community. Only three municipalities remained to be covered in the Las Palmas provinceall of them in Gran Canariasince the work was completed in the seven lanzaroteños and the six majoreros. However, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife there were still 16 waiting: nine from Tenerife, four from La Gomera, two from La Palma and one from El Hierro.
Eleven operators participated in the competition with a total of 255 projects in the country
The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures published yesterday the provisional resolution of the convocation of the program Unico (Universalization of Digital Infrastructures for Cohesion) 5G Backhaul networks, to accelerate the arrival of this technology in rural areas. In common language, it means the arrival of fiber optics to the most remote enclaves of the Canary Islands. The ministry also gave free rein to the Unico Redes 5G Activas, which achieved the approval of its bases by Brussels at the end of last month.
Digital Spain Agenda
The two programs are financed with European funds Next Generation EU, which are part of the Recovery Plan also approved by the European Commission to promote the return of economic activity to the countries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. coronavirus. As a whole, this initiative, which is aligned with the objectives of the Digital Spain 2026 Agenda, adds an investment of 12,931,996 euros for the deployment of 5G in municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants in the Archipelago.
Eleven operators attended throughout Spain, presenting 255 applications for the implementation of this technology in the 50 provinces of Spain. Eight of the applicants obtained the go-ahead for some of their projects. He amount of aid in the country as a whole reaches 448.8 million euros “To provide backhaul connection via fiber optics -including active and passive elements- to sites (towers) of public mobile telephone networks that do not have such a connection in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants,” the note details.
The arrival of the highest quality connections fosters a boost throughout the economy
About this last chapter, the grants provisionally granted to the Canary provinces amount to 3.9 million euros and “contribute to the objective of deploying the necessary capacities to provide services and applications based on 5G technology in rural areas.” So that? So that no territory is left behind and “a digital divide in the deployment of 5G” does not form.
This also helps to deal with what is known as demographic challenge, that it has in avoiding or reversing depopulation one of its great pillars. With the advent of new technologies, the “new economic activities and opportunities” are fostered in each and every one of the corners of the canary autonomous community.