The Government publishes the terms and conditions of the public subsidies offered to pilot projects based on 5G technology

2018.10.3

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After they were signed by the Minister for Economy and Business, the terms and conditions of the public subsidies for developing 5G projects were published on Wednesday in the Official State Gazette.

The call for applications will be issued by the state institution Red.es. The subsidies will be part of the National 5G Plan, and have a budget of 20 million euros, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for a maximum of two pilot projects.

Companies or temporary joint ventures established for this purpose may apply for a maximum subsidy of 40% of the amount of their projects. The maximum total budget of the projects eligible for the subsidies is 50 million euros.

The call for applications issued by Red.es will establish a maximum period of 2 months to present the applications from its publication in the BOE. A decision must be made within 6 months counting from the day following the deadline for presenting applications.

The pilot projects will be in the 3.4-3.8 GHz and 26 GHz frequency bands, which have been identified in the European Union as priority for the launch of 5G services.

The projects presented to this call for applications must comply with three requirements: support the deployment of the first 5G networks; experiment with the network management techniques made possible by 5G technology; and develop use cases, with the involvement of all the agents including users, to demonstrate the three great improvements contributed by 5G: extremely high speed and capacity mobile broadband; ultra-reliable and low-latency communications; and mass machine-to-machine communications.

Objectives of the call for applications

The Ministry of Economy and Business aims to use these subsidies to boost the development of pilot 5G projects by the private sector. The Government wants to boost early demand to encourage experimentation with various potential strengths of 5G technology, and promote the development of ecosystems between operators, technology and solution providers and the rest of the agents involved.

The experience acquired will position Spain among the most advanced countries in the development of this new technology, so that when 5G reaches its technological and commercial maturity, it will be prepared to take full advantage of the opportunities of this new technological paradigm. 5G services, together with fibre optic infrastructures, will constitute the core of the networks for a digital Spain.

5G technology will be the essential technological component of digital transformation. Its deployment will allow the development of the Internet of Things, big data, robotics and virtual reality, producing a transversal effect that will cut across society and the economy over the next decade to act as a catalyst for attracting investment and as a lever for inclusive growth by helping to reduce the digital gap.

Non official translation