The Government of the Generalitat, through the Secretariat of Telecommunications and Digital Transformation, expands the public fiber optic network with a deployment that corresponds to the largest investment made in this area, to reduce public internet spending. Today, the public fiber optic network has reached 5,213 km and extends to 473 municipalities, 829 associated nuclei within these municipalities, and 667 industrial estates. In percentage terms, this means 49.89% of the municipalities in Catalonia, which host 92.08% of the inhabitants.
Furthermore, it is soon expected to reach 98% of the country's population through 7,000 km of network, with the aim of supplying all public Generalitat offices, guaranteeing service to hospitals and schools, among others. As for industrial estates, the figure would increase to 856 activity zones.
These data, although sufficiently important, also indicate that right now, the deployment is impacting and will impact small municipalities and, in general, territories with very dispersed populations. This backbone network is already providing end services contracted by 111 different operating companies, and services are already available in 384 municipalities.
For equality and territorial development
The Government's major commitment to the public fiber optic network responds to the desire to facilitate connection points throughout the territory to enable universal access to connectivity, understood as a right to be preserved for all citizens, wherever they live. This firm step towards public connectivityguarantees equal opportunitiesand causes the settlement of people and activities in territories that were being depopulated, because it supports the activities typical of each region or municipality and the digitalization of economic, social and cultural life. This initiative clearly promotes overcoming the digital divide, inequality in digital access and in the associated services, to guarantee balance and equal opportunities between territories.Public commitment boosts the market and creates new opportunities
In this sense, what the Secretariat of Telecommunications and Digital Transformation does is deploy fiber throughout Catalonia and make it available to operators so that they can bring connectivity to private homes.The deployment of fiber optic infrastructure contributes to the deconcentration of the operator market and the growth of proximity operators. In this way, the public network boosts the market to the extent that the service of operators can be extended and expanded while opportunities multiply, both for pre-existing economic, social and cultural activities, which see the possibility of digitizing, and for new activities that are created in the territory thanks to connectivity.
A new collaborative model
The extension of public fiber optics that is being carried out is part of the new Catalan connectivity model that includes new governance formulas and a regulation based on the co-responsibility of the actors involved in the digital system. The collaboration between the different local administrations, provincial councils and the Government of Catalonia, as well as public-private collaboration are the guiding principles for this impulse to be as broad as allowed by current Spanish regulation, which, in fact, prevents offering connectivity service directly to citizens. The dialogue process between administrations will be carried out within the framework of the National Pact for the Digital Society throughout the territory and with all involved actors.This strategy to guarantee the right to connectivity, by deploying its own infrastructure, is not just a conviction of the Government of the Generalitat. In the Communication of May 6, 2015, the European Commission already spoke of incentivizing investment in high-capacity networks, of coherently approaching radio spectrum management, and of establishing conditions for boosting an internal market through actions that guarantee equal conditions for all actors.
Catalonia connects us: the key to inclusive digital development
The actions undertaken regarding territorial connectivity have a common point with the rest of the policies and projects related to Digital transformation: focusing on people and their needs.The current deployment of fiber optic infrastructures is essential to achieve a just, sustainable digital society with technology and digital tools at the service of people.
Within the framework of the campaign 'Catalunya ens connecta', the fiber deployment puts connectivity at the service of citizens so that they have equal opportunities. Because a connected country is a country where all people have access to the options offered by technology. This is the goal and it is starting to become a reality in many parts of the country.
This publicly owned fiber optic network is the lever for a connected Catalonia, upon which the development of disruptive technologies such as decentralized computing, the deployment of activities monitored with sensor networks, the use of artificial intelligence, among many other technological options, will be built and put at the service of citizens to improve people's lives with an inclusive social perspective.
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