The Ministry of Economy and Business resolves the first call for grants for 5G technology pilot projects

• The two selected projects have a higher aggregate budget of more than 36 million euros, of which more than 10 million will be co-financed by Red.es through the ERDF
• The projects belong to Temporary Business Unions headed by Vodafone and Telefónica, and will be located in Andalusia and Galicia, respectively

The Ministry of Economy and Enterprise has resolved the call for aid for the development of two pilots of 5G technology, launched by Red.es, with the selection of two projects to be developed in the autonomous communities of Andalusia and Galicia. The aggregate budget amounts to more than € 36 million, of which more than € 10 million will be co-financed by Red.es through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), under the Multiregional Operational Program of Spain (POPE).

The two projects correspond to the Temporary Business Unions headed by Vodafone Spain and Huawei Technologies Spain, whose pilot will be developed in Andalusia, and composed of Telefónica Móviles España, Telefónica de España, Telnet Redes Inteligentes, Cinfo Customized Informational Content, International Advanced Ophthalmology, Idronia Multimedia Solutions, Nokia Spain and Ericsson Spain, whose scope of action will be Galicia.

Both initiatives have multiple use cases that take advantage of the potential of 5G technology in key sectors for society such as health, infrastructure or defense.

Pilot project in Andalusia

The 5G technology pilot project to be deployed in Andalusia by the UTE, composed of Vodafone Spain and Huawei Technologies Spain, has a duration of 30 months and a budget of more than € 25 million (€ 25,410,348.57), for which it has been requested an aid of more than € 6 million (€ 6,348,836.88) that will be co-financed by Red.es under the ERDF.

The project includes 32 cases of use that will be developed in very diverse areas: agriculture, health, smart cities and territories, security and defense, society, economy and digital culture, digital transformation and tourism. There are ten cases of use that experience virtual reality and augmented reality in different areas, five that revolve around applications with drones and three use cases that explore facial recognition, among others.

To carry out the use cases, a 5G network will be deployed in several points of the provinces of Málaga, Cádiz, Sevilla, Huelva and Jaén: the urban environment of Seville (historic center, Isla de La Cartuja, Real de la Feria and surroundings of FIBES), the surroundings of Malaga (center of Malaga, Andalusian technology park, María Zambrano station, Digital Content Center and Automobile Museum), the port of Huelva, Guadalema de Quinteros, the Airbus factory in Puerto Real, Port of Algeciras and the Atlas airfield in Jaén.

Pilot project in Galicia

The 5G technology pilot project to be developed in Galicia is presented by the UTE Telefónica Móviles España, Telefónica de España, Telnet Redes Inteligentes, Cinfo Customized Informational Content, International Center for Advanced Ophthalmology, Idronia Multimedia Solutions, Nokia Spain and Ericsson Spain. It has a duration of 24 months and a budget of more than € 11 million (€ 11,500,164.02), for which an aid of more than € 4 million has been requested (€ 4,600,065.61), which will be co-financed by Red.es charged to the ERDF.

The project includes eight use cases that will be developed in very diverse areas such as the retransmission of events, the connected car (C-V2X), the supervision of railway infrastructures by drones, and industry 4.0 with three use cases based on techniques of augmented reality, fixed wireless access (FWA) and health (robot for remote ophthalmological diagnosis). The use cases, in addition to the experimentation with the 5G network, include the development of applications and artificial intelligence algorithms.

In addition to access to the infrastructures deployed for the pilot project, Telefónica will make available to third parties (companies, SMEs, startups, etc.) the physical infrastructure, as well as the management, support and advice of THE THINX laboratories (laboratories focused on IoT technologies). ) located in Madrid and Barcelona and to which in 2019 they will be equipped with 5G technology.

To carry them out, a 5G network will be deployed in several points of the four Galician provinces: the Navantia pavilions in Ferrol, the RC Deportivo de la Coruña facilities in the Riazor stadium, Abegondo, the Cereixal tunnel in the A-6 and the urban nuclei of the cities of Vigo and Orense.

About the call

The public call for aid for the development of 5G technology pilot projects was launched by Red.es at the end of 2018 for a value of € 20 million, aimed at a territorial scope of action. The call that has been resolved today has received a broad response from the sector upon receiving a total of eleven applications, which represented an aggregate budget of € 128 million.

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

All the information is available in the Red.es website.