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The inclusion of the new gray areas in the call, together with the white ones, will allow a greater number of localities to be the target of aid for the deployment of new generation, very high-speed access networks, promoting social and territorial cohesion in the state.
- The public consultation that begins today includes for the first time a map of white and gray NGA areas identified from geo-referenced coverage, which has allowed to improve the typification of areas and streamline the administrative process
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation will include for the first time the gray areas, together with the white areas, in the call for aid of the Broadband Extension Program NGA. At the initiative of the Government, the European Commission authorized in December the inclusion of these areas among the possible objectives of aid for the deployment of broadband in the Member States.
This expansion will allow a greater number of localities to receive aid for the deployment of new generation high-speed access networks, thereby reinforcing the country's territorial and social structure.
The gray NGA areas included in the query are those in which, even having very high speed coverage or coverage forecasts in the next three years, it is provided by a single operator and where the speed is less than 100 Mbps. White areas They are those that do not have coverage of speed networks of at least 30 Mbps, nor plans for their provision in the next three years.
The public consultation that begins today includes the preliminary list of white and gray NGA areas. This relationship is an essential element for the identification of potential areas for action and receipt of aid through the 2020 call of the New Generation National Broadband Extension Program (PEBA-NGA).
The consultation includes the publication of a map of white and gray NGA areas identified from the geo-referenced coverage provided by the operators, which contains more than 60,000 eligible areas with an estimated figure, based on data provided by the Cadastre, of some 2,250,000 real estate units.
The incorporation of this location model will allow to be more efficient and streamline the administrative process of previous years, by simplifying the consultation process in a single phase. It will also make it easier for the Administration and operators to manage public aid, optimizing the location of the zones and allowing agents to plan the deployment through a map or georeferenced layer with the different white and gray NGA zones in a more selective way, accurate and automated.
The spread of very high-speed broadband is government-driven and is one of the engines of development for inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Spain has the most extensive fiber network in Europe, with 45 million accesses. The coverage of the population at speeds of 30 Megabits per second, after having imposed compliance with regulatory obligations on operators with the 800 Plan, is currently over 94%. Regarding coverage at speeds of 100 Megabits per second, the latest actions carried out in 2019 with the Broadband Extension Plan (PEBA) will allow, at the end of the work and projects underway, the ultra-fast speed to reach 91% of citizens.
With the next call of the PEBA-NGA 2020, which will use the map that is submitted for consultation today, it is expected to facilitate access at very high speed to an additional 1,500,000 inhabitants, contributing to greater territorial cohesion and the reduction of the digital divide. .