The government delegate in Galicia, José Miñones, and the Secretary of State for Telecommunications, María González, visited this morning the facilities of the Casa Grande de Xanceda, in Mesía, to learn about the impact of the government’s digitalization policies on rural municipalities and the primary sector. They reiterated the commitment of the Government of Pedro Sánchez to the total connectivity of the population, a pillar of public action that is becoming a reality with the UN-Broadband Program, within the framework of the Plan of Recovery, Transformation and Resilience.
The UN-Broadband Program is one of the lines of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation to ensure the complete connectivity of the population in 2025. In addition, it is a strategic element of the demographic challenge policies, since the provision of the Internet is a basic service for the economic development of rural areas and the fixation of their population.
This program is based on calls to technology companies to implement high-performance connectivity projects in areas that do not have this service. Currently, the projects of the first two calls are already in progress, which will provide very high-speed fiber to 226,725 households and companies in Galicia before the end of 2024. The Government provides 71.2 million euros for the implementation of these projects, which range from civil works to final connectivity.
In the province of A Coruña, the UNICO Program will connect 2,479 households and companies, with an investment of 16.8 million euros from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In Lugo, the UNICO Program will act on 78,184 households and companies with the state contribution of 22.5 million euros. In Ourense, 55,773 households and companies will benefit, for which the Government will contribute 20.7 million euros. Finally, in Pontevedra, 40,289 households and companies will be equipped with this technology, with a state investment of 11.1 million euros.
The execution of these projects is an example of public-private collaboration, since companies contribute what remains up to the total cost of these actions, estimated at 107 million euros in the whole of Galicia.
Visit to Mesía
The delegate and the Secretary of State, accompanied by the mayor of Mesía, Mariano Iglesias, and the deputy delegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, met the facilities of the Casa Grande de Xanceda at the hands of its manager, Guillermo Vázquez, where they verified the incorporation of technology and digital connectivity to the different areas of this family business, an example of entrepreneurship in rural areas.
The Casa Grande de Xanceda benefited from the Government’s PEBA program for connectivity, which made it possible to provide the Internet to this operation, which was key to the consolidation of the business and allowed the implementation of the sales and dissemination channels on the web.
In the City of Mesía, the UN-Broadband Program contemplates the extension of broadband to 759 homes and companies located in 285 areas that today do not have this service. This work will complete the connectivity of Mesía that began with the previous state plan, the PEBA Plan, through which it was provided with internet access to several population centers of this city, including the one that hosts the Casa Grande of Xanceda.