2020_08_20_CEIT_Ceit participates in the pilot project to test 5G technology in the Basque Country.

The project "5G Euskadi" has result been awarded the Spanish Government's aid program for the development and implementation of the new technology. This is the first 5G pilot project in the Basque Country and is born from the commitment to promote innovation and industrial transformation of the main companies and technology centers in the Basque Country.

This project is formed by a consortium of 13 partners from a wide ecosystem of telecommunications operators, equipment providers from network, universities, research, public institutions and private companies: Euskaltel, R, Orange, group MASMOVIL, ZTE Spain, ZTE Managed Services, Gestamp, Ikusi (group Velatia), CAF, Dbus (Donostia City Council), Datik (group Irizar), Ceit and Vicomtech. These companies have also established partnership agreements with Iberdrola, Basque Security Center (Basque Government), Tecnalia, University of the Basque Country and Tecnun (University of Navarra). In addition, this project has the support of the Basque public administration : Basque Government (department of development Economic and Infrastructures), Donostia-San Sebastián City Council, Bizkaia Provincial Council, Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, Araba Provincial Council, Zamudio City Council and Abadiño City Council.

It should also be noted that the pilot project has been designed and managed by network Colmena (Promotora de Redes Compartidas, SA) and the consortium is managed by Euskaltel.

The project, C within the committee administration network.es, an entity of the Ministry of Economics and business, will last 30 months, involves an investment of 7.1 million euros, for which network.es grants a subsidy of 2.2 million and is co-financed through the European Regional Fund development (ERDF), a position of the Pluriregional Operational Program of Spain (POPE).

This joint initiative consists of deploying a 5G network in the three Technology Parks of the Basque Country (Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, Araba) and in Abadiño, for which 65% of the budget will be allocated, and developing 9 use cases, which will complete the total investment. Specifically, these use cases are oriented to the pre-commercial development of products and services in the areas of mobility, energy, industry, cybersecurity and services of network. To this end, next-generation 5G technology will be experimented with: Edge computing, Network slicing and Virtualization of the network and will test the capabilities that 5G develops in speed (20 times faster than 4G), latency (100 times less latency than 4G) and massive IoT (there is a 100-fold increase in issue of connected devices per km2 compared to 4G).

development of 5G technology in Spain

The project "5G Euskadi" is born from the reflection on the future development of 5G networks and its relevance for the social and economic development of the territory, applying this technology in the fields of mobility, energy, industry and cybersecurity. It is part of the 2nd call of the program of the public entity network.es, under the Ministry of Economics and business.

With the calls for 5G pilots, launched at framework of the National 5G Plan and the National Plan for Intelligent Territories, the Government seeks promote an early demand that facilitates experimentation with the different potentialities of 5G and promotes the development of ecosystems between operators, technology and solution providers and other agents involved.

The experience acquired will help Spain to be among the most advanced countries in the development of this new technology. In this way it is promoted that, when 5G reaches its technological and commercial maturity, the country can be prepared for an adequate provision of services and take full advantage of the opportunities of this technology, fundamental for the digital transformation of society and of the Economics in the most advanced countries during the next decade.

The approved projects address three objectives: to experiment the first deployments of 5G networks and the techniques of management of network that this technology allows, and to develop use cases with the involvement of all agents, including users.