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The Government of the Generalitat, through the Secretariat of Telecommunications and Digital Transformation, is expanding the public fiber optic network with a deployment that corresponds to the largest investment that has been made in this area, to reduce public internet spending. It has already been achieved that the public optical fiber has a range of 5,213 km and reaches 473 municipalities, 829 nuclei associated with these municipalities and 667 industrial estates. In percentage terms, this means 49.89% of the municipalities in Catalonia, where 92.08% of its inhabitants live.
Soon it is planned to reach 98% of the country's population through 7,000 km of network, with the aim of supplying all public headquarters of the Generalitat, thus guaranteeing service to hospitals and schools, among other facilities. In the service to industrial estates, the figure would increase to 856 activity areas.
These data, although important enough, also indicate that right now, the deployment is impacting and will impact small municipalities and, in general, territories with widely dispersed populations. This backbone network is already carrying out finalist services contracted by 111 different operating companies and there are already services available in 384 municipalities.
The Government's great commitment to a public fiber optic network responds to the desire to provide connection points throughout the territory to make possible universal access to connection, understood as a right to be preserved for all citizens, wherever they reside. This firm step towards public connectivity guarantees equal opportunities and facilitates the establishment of people and activities in territories that were being depopulated, because it supports the activities 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 services associated with it, to guarantee balance and equal opportunities between territories.
The Secretary of Telecommunications and Digital Transformation deploys fiber throughout Catalonia to make it available to operators so that they can deliver connectivity to the homes of individuals.
The deployment of fiber optic infrastructure contributes to the deconcentration of the operator market and the growth of those that are local. In this way, the public network energizes the market to the extent that the operators' service can be extended and expanded and at the same time they multiply opportunities, both for pre-existing economic, social and cultural activities, which see the possibility of being digitalized, as for new activities that are created in the territory thanks to connectivity.
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 regulation based on the co-responsibility of the actors involved in the digital system. The collaboration between the different local administrations, councils and the Government of Catalonia, as well as public-private collaboration, are the guiding principles so that this impulse is as broad as the current Spanish regulation allows, which, in fact, prevents offering services. connectivity 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 entire territory and with all the actors involved.
This strategy to guarantee the right to connectivity, deploying its own infrastructure, is not only a conviction of the Government of the Generalitat. In the Communication of May 6, 2015, the European Commission already advocated encouraging investment in high-capacity networks, coherently focusing the management of the radio spectrum and establishing conditions for the promotion of an internal market through actions that guarantee equal conditions for all actors.
The actions undertaken in connectivity of the territory have a point in common 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 fair, sustainable digital society with technology and digital tools at the service of people.
Within the framework of the 'Catalunya ens connecta' campaign, the deployment of fiber puts connectivity at the service of citizens so that they have equal opportunities. Because a connected country is a country in which all people have access to the options offered by technology. This is the goal and it is beginning to be a reality in many places.
This publicly owned fiber optic network is the lever for a connected Catalonia, on which the development of disruptive technologies such as decentralized computing, the deployment of activities monitored with sensor networks and the use of artificial intelligence, among others, is built. many technological options, which will be put at the service of citizens to improve people's lives with an inclusive social perspective.
