The European Commission has given the green light this Thursday to a public aid plan of 680 million euros that the Government has provided under the European Anti-Crisis Fund to promote the deployment of high-performance 5G autonomous network equipment and infrastructure in neglected rural areas.

The Community Executive has approved the program, concluding that it is “necessary and proportionate” to remedy a market deficiency such as the absence of high-performance mobile communications networks in remote and sparsely populated regions of Spain.

In addition, it has valued the “incentive” effect of the plan because it facilitates the deployment of equipment and infrastructures that private operators have not deployed or are going to deploy, mainly due to their high cost, which is not offset by the expected income.

Likewise, the community services have taken into account that the plan includes sufficient safeguards to guarantee that undue distortions of competition are limited and that the aid does not alter the conditions of commercial exchanges in a manner contrary to the common interest.

As indicated by Brussels in a statement, this program is part of Spain’s strategy to meet the needs of citizens and companies in the context of the digitization of the country; as well as to contribute to the achievement of strategic objectives of digital transition.

The First Vice President and Minister for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, highlighted this “good news” and recalled that the Government has been working with Brussels for more than a year on this process so that Spain can continue to lead the deployment of 5G technology in the EU, starting with rural areas.

5G technology will bring innovation to rural areas

The new 5G autonomous networks will support innovative services with 5G technology in rural areas, in areas such as digital health, smart agriculture, digitized industry, autonomous driving or cloud-based services, as detailed by community services.

To this end, the aid will pay for the installation of equipment and infrastructure for the deployment of autonomous 5G networks and the provision of autonomous 5G mobile broadband services, with upload and download speeds of at least 100 Mbps and 5 Mbps, respectively.

The investment is expected in towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants and where there are no current or planned investments in 4G networks that offer download speeds of at least 50 Mbps.

The aid may be granted until December 31, 2025, and the 5G mobile networks must come into operation by February 2026 at the latest, according to the European Commission in its statement.

In addition, the aid will take the form of direct subsidies to electronic communications operators, the beneficiaries will be chosen through an open, competitive, transparent and non-discriminatory selection procedure. The maximum amount of aid per beneficiary will be equivalent to 90% of the eligible costs.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: James Yarema, Unsplash)

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