The subdelegate of the Government in Ourense, Eladio Santos, celebrated today in Petín that 75 projects distributed by 52 municipalities of the province of Ourense benefit from the aid of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Public Service to enjoy 5G. “We seek to ensure equal opportunities and quality of life in small villas,” he said.
He did so in a meeting with the mayor of Petín, Raquel Bautista, who received him in the Town Hall House of the town. There, the subdelegate explained that the UNICO 5G – Active Networks program contributes to connectivity to rural areas by providing the necessary equipment and auxiliary infrastructure in mobile services with 5G technology.
The government invests 4.7 million euros in the province of Ourense, where 75 projects are subsidized. In particular, in the region of Valdeorras 10 sites obtained the aid: three of them in A Veiga and the rest distributed by the municipalities of Carballeda, Larouco, Petín, A Rúa, Rubiá, O Bolo and Vilamartín.
This line of aid is entirely intended for municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants to provide rural areas with the essential infrastructures for daily life. “Once again, we reaffirm the commitment of the Government of Spain to the fight against rural depopulation,” said Santos.
In addition, the State Secretariat for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure also promotes the UNICO 5G Networks – Backhaul Fibre Optics plan to make the necessary connections to mobile electronic communications network sites.
This aid contributes, on the one hand, to reducing the digital divide in rural areas and, on the other, to meeting the demographic challenge.
These programs aim to complete others already in place since 2020 to improve connectivity in 100% of the territory. In fact, there were four calls for proposals from the UNICO - Broadband program, in which the Government of Spain invests more than 24 million euros in the province of Ourense. Thus, fiber optic installation can be made possible in a total of 5,492 homes in the region of Valdeorras.
UNICO 5G Program - Active Networks
El programa UNICO 5G Redes Activas es una iniciativa pionera en Europa. It allocates funds from the Recovery Plan to finance equipment and the construction of towers that expand the deployment of 5G with full functionality in small municipalities. The goal is to provide 5G coverage to locations where there is no 4G mobile coverage of at least 50 Mbps downstream, and where it is not expected to be available for the next three years.