With the aim of ending the digital divide in Spain in the coming years, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has published the proposal for the call for the Universalization of Digital Infrastructures for Cohesion Program, known as the UNICO plan, with which will extend the deployment of fiber in those areas where the operators had not planned to reach with own deployments for not being profitable.
After the execution of the selected projects in UNICO-Banda Ancha and the ongoing projects of the PEBA-NGA calls, the coverage of networks with speeds greater than 100 Mbps will reach the 95% of the population in 2023 and 100% in 2025.
Telefónica will bring fiber to 1 million homes with public aid
UNICO will subsidize 52% of the cost of the deployment in these areas, while the rest of the investment will be provided by the operators in obtaining the subsidies for the different projects, and where Telefónica has monopolized 80% of the aid, while the rest has been shared between Adamo and Avatel.
Specifically, Avatel will be in charge of deploying in Córdoba, Malaga, Zaragoza, Albacete and Guadalajara with aid of 24 million; Adamo in Huelva, Cantabria, Palencia, Zamora, Toledo and Tarragona with 27 million; and Telephone in the rest of the provinces with 198 million euros in subsidies. Orange, MásMóvil and other companies have finally been left out of the aid, while Vodafone did not even show up.
In total they will be 4,516 municipalities and 1.27 million real estate units (homes and companies) where at least it will be possible to navigate at 100 Mbps, either through fixed or wireless solutions.
Most of the municipalities that will benefit from these deployments are located in the so-called “White areas”, which do not have coverage of speed networks of at least 30 Mbps, nor plans for its provision in the next three years, and the rest of “Gray areas” that only have new generation broadband coverage at less than 100 Mbps from a single operator.
León, Valencia and Asturias will be the provinces where the most real estate units will be covered with fiber, while the provinces where more different municipalities Barcelona, Valencia and Burgos will benefit from the new fiber networks. The complete list of provinces, real estate units and the number of towns is as follows:
- LEÓN: 73,375 UUII of 154 municipalities.
- VALENCIA: 69856 UUII of 229 municipalities.
- ASTURIAS: 56932 UUII of 76 municipalities.
- ALICANTE: 54819 UUII of 134 municipalities.
- ÁVILA: 50501 UUII of 126 municipalities.
- BURGOS: 50,091 UUII of 168 municipalities.
- ZARAGOZA: 47262 UUII of 131 municipalities.
- GIRONA: 46 164 UUII of 161 municipalities.
- LLEIDA: 46075 UUII of 164 municipalities.
- LUGO: 45514 UUII of 64 municipalities.
- MURCIA: 44458 UUII of 45 municipalities.
- SALAMANCA: 39,095 UUII of 124 municipalities.
- MÁLAGA: 37,398 FIUs from 101 municipalities.
- ZAMORA: 37126 UUII from 81 municipalities.
- SORIA: 33135 UUII of 123 municipalities.
- GRANADA: 32,497 UUII of 123 municipalities.
- CASTELLÓN: 26505 UUII of 97 municipalities.
- TARRAGONA: 25,929 FIUs from 61 municipalities.
- SEVILLE: 25,282 UUII of 71 municipalities.
- PALENCIA: 24966 UUII of 133 municipalities.
- CANTABRIA: 23,348 FIUs of 102 municipalities.
- CÓRDOBA: 21,706 UUII from 71 municipalities.
- BARCELONA: 21069 UUII of 247 municipalities.
- HUESCA: 19104 UUII of 125 municipalities.
- PONTEVEDRA: 17,973 UUII of 58 municipalities.
- MADRID: 17,817 UUII of 130 municipalities.
- TERUEL: 17691 UUII of 82 municipalities.
- BALEARIC ISLANDS: 16,246 UUII of 52 municipalities.
- BADAJOZ: 16075 UUII of 38 municipalities.
- TO CORUÑA: 15,923 FIUs from 76 municipalities.
- CÁCERES: 15,510 FIUs from 61 municipalities.
- VALLADOLID: 15347 UUII of 115 municipalities.
- SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE: 15121 UUII of 42 municipalities.
- LA RIOJA: 15093 UUII of 123 municipalities.
- CÁDIZ: 14728 UUII of 35 municipalities.
- JAÉN: 14318 UUII of 63 municipalities.
- LAS PALMAS: 14142 FIUs of 32 municipalities.
- HUELVA: 11,569 UUII from 44 municipalities.
- GUADALAJARA: 11,344 UUII of 42 municipalities.
- ALMERÍA: 11,154 FIUs from 43 municipalities.
- GUIPUZKOA: 10,294 UUII from 73 municipalities.
- OURENSE: 10138 FIUs of 80 municipalities.
- CIUDAD REAL: 9,769 UUII of 34 municipalities.
- NAVARRA: 8488 UUII of 115 municipalities.
- BASIN: 7843 UUII of 69 municipalities.
- TOLEDO: 7187 FIUs from 36 municipalities.
- BIZKAIA: 6,997 FIUs from 73 municipalities.
- ALBACETE: 6010 UUII of 12 municipalities.
- SEGOVIA: 4,720 UUII from 42 municipalities.
- ÁLAVA: 2,179 UUII from 34 municipalities.
- MELILLA: 57 UUII from 1 municipality.
- CEUTA: 27 UUII from 1 municipality.
More information | Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.