17 September 2020. Euskaltel is to be the manager and coordinator of the "Euskadi 5G" project, which is an awardee of the Spanish government grants programme for the development and implementation of this new technology. This is the first real 5G pilot project in Euskadi, arising from the commitment to promote innovation and the industrial transformation of the Basque Country?s leading companies and technological centres.
In the context of the "Euskadi 5G" project, a 5G infrastructure pilot project is created with network deployment for a virtual mobile operator, in which Euskaltel provides the core central network management elements while, on another front, its current host supplier (Orange) provides radio access. This Euskaltel technology will make it possible to provide actual 5G services to Euskaltel Group clients in the future.
Thanks to this pilot project, Euskaltel will avail of the technologies that 5G enables (ultra-fast broadband and low latency connecting millions of devices). The first phase will be non-stand-alone technology, which is the initial technology proper to 5G, based on commercial deployment announced on the market. A second phase presents the fundamental core of the project, in stand-alone or actual 5G technology, which is the future 5G technology, deploying all its capacities and functional developments.
Moreover, attention will focus on the creation of mobile edge computing centres which, along with other 5G technologies, serve as key enablers of this technological universe, with a multitude of applications in industrial, energy, mobility and other fields to improve and evolve current processes and incorporate new services and functions to improve competitive advantage.ri ahalbidetzeko, eta, hala, gaur egungo prozesuak hobetzeko eta eboluzionatzeko eta enpresen lehiakortasuna hobetzeko zerbitzu eta funtzio berriak izateko.
This pilot experience will enable Euskaltel to position itself as a real-5G technology supplier in both the residential and corporate segments, facilitating future competitive improvement to the Basque industrial sector.
Among the cases of use to be developed in the project is the application of fixed wireless connectivity, which, using 5G technological advantages, enables ultra-fast broadband speed without requiring fibre access. This type of access makes it possible to more effectively cover sparsely-populated environments such as rural zones, bridging any technological gaps that may exist.
On the one hand, this joint initiative consists of deploying and enabling a 5G network in the three Euskadi technology parks (Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, Araba) over the coming 30 months, for which 65% of the budget will be earmarked. On the other hand, 9 cases of use will be developed, completing the full investment. Specifically, these cases of use are oriented to the pre-commercial development of products and services in mobility, energy, industry, cybersecurity and network services. For the purpose, experiments will be conducted with latest-generation 5G technology: edge computing, network slicing and network virtualization; and tests will be done on 5G speed capacities (20 times faster than 4G), latency (100 times less latent than 4G) and massive IoT (number of connectible devices per km2 in 4G multiplied by 100).
Along with the Basque government and other companies and public and private agencies, Euskaltel has worked on several initiatives with the intention of producing a project of these characteristics, finally reflected in the ?Euskadi 5G? project award by Red.es to the consortium.
The infrastructure built in this pilot project emerges as a driver for additional projects that may use it as a future baseline; in this sense, the Basque government initiative to support 5G projects may be lauded.
The "Euskadi 5G" project, which forms part of the Red.es programme second project call, arose from a reflection on the future development of 5G networks and their relevance to the social and economic development of the territory, applied to the areas of mobility, energy, industry and cybersecurity. All the projects approved meet the aims of experimenting with initial 5G network deployments and the network management techniques to enable this technology, developing cases of use involving all players, including users.
The calls for 5G pilot projects, launched in the framework of the National 5G Plan and the National Smart Territories Plan, seek to promote early demand in order to experiment with different 5G capabilities and drive the development of ecosystems between suppliers, technology and solution suppliers and the other players involved forward.
This experience will situate Euskadi, its corporate environment and its technological centres among the most advanced regions in developing this new technology. This way, when 5G reaches its technological and commercial maturity, it will be prepared for proper service delivery and will be able to use the opportunities provided by this new technology to the maximum, basic in the digital transformation of society and the economy in the most advanced countries during the coming decade.
The award for the state grant programme to the ?Euskadi 5G? project is, beyond a doubt, the result of the preliminary work done by Euskaltel with the Basque government and other companies and public and private agencies in several initiatives of this type. Moreover, the infrastructure developed will be a potential driver for more projects that can make use of it in the future, in the framework of future Basque government 5G support programmes.
To implement "Euskadi 5G" under the management of Euskaltel, a consortium has been formed, consisting of 13 partners from the ecosystem of telecommunications operators, network equipment suppliers, universities, research centres, public institutions and private companies: Euskaltel, R, Orange, the MASMÓVIL group, ZTE España, ZTE Managed Services, Gestamp, Ikusi (Velatia Group), CAF, Dbus (municipality of Donostia), Datik (Irizar Group), CEIT and Vicomtech. Moreover, these companies have set up collaboration agreements with Iberdrola, the Basque Security Center (Basque government), Tecnalia, the University of the Basque Country and Tecnun University in Navarre.
The "Euskadi 5G" project approved by Red.es, an agency of the Ministry of the Economy and Enterprise, will have a duration of 30 months, entailing an investment of 7.1 million euro, for which Red.es provides a subsidy of 2.2 million; it is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Multiregional Operational Programme for Spain (MOPS).
Euskaltel - Communication Department
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