Sen requests the Board to unlock the more than 1,000 pending procedures to be able to continue with the extension of the optical fiber

• The government delegate, Nicanor Sen, invites the President of the Community to work more for the implementation of broadband and claim less from a central government that has already invested about 100 million in Castilla y León through the UN-Broadband Program • Telecommunications operators claim more than a thousand permits competence of the regional administration to continue with the extension of broadband, about 80% with a cumulative delay of more than 120 days

April 15, 2024. The Government delegate, Nicanor Sen, has invited the President of the Junta de Castilla y León to focus his efforts on expediting the processing of the more than one thousand Autonomous Community permits that telecommunications operators demand to continue with the extension of broadband instead of demanding from the Central Government a work that is already being done and that is estimated to be about 100 million euros of investment for Castilla y León through the UN-Broadband Program.

According to the information periodically transferred by the operators to the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, as of March 27 there were 1,073 pending permits from the autonomous community, of which 853, that is, almost 80%, accumulated a delay of more than 120 days.

Sen recalled that this program, financed through the Recovery Plan, has already involved an investment for Castilla y León of more than 99.4 million euros for the deployment of broadband, “that is, almost 100 million euros that meet the needs of more than 2,600 municipalities in depopulated areas and where access was very complicated and unattractive to the private sector.”

“The objective of the Government of Spain is to put an end to the digital divide, wherever you live, and today we can say that this objective has been achieved, since 100% of the Castilian and Leonese population can already connect to broadband by fiber or by satellite,” explained the delegate, who recalls that in places where fiber has not yet arrived the Executive guarantees connectivity via satellite through the Conéctate program, to which all municipalities can adhere for 35 euros per month with 100 megas of ultra-fast connection.

These so-called ‘white areas’ to which the fiber has not yet reached will also be included in the last call for the SINGLE Program, scheduled for 2025.

Therefore, the government delegate has asked the Junta de Castilla y León to speed up the pending procedures and solve this situation that may result in the loss of the project if it is not executed in time.

MORE THAN ONE MILLION BENEFICIARY HOUSEHOLDS AND COMPANIES

Once the three calls for proposals of the UNICO Program that are currently being developed (2021, 2022 and 2023) are completed, the work that this Government began to develop in 2018 with another three calls already completed will have arrived in Castilla y León to an estimated population of 1,041,886 households and companies.