Rede Aberta will bring fibre optics to 36,556 homes in the rural area of the province of A Coruña, after being awarded the UNICO Banda Ancha 2022 programme of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation to extend fibre optics to the entire territory.
The provisional resolution represents a “boost” to Rede Aberta’s strategy to connect rural areas of the province of A Coruña with very high-capacity digital infrastructures, with speeds exceeding 100 Mbps, as it currently has a deployment plan underway to reach 192,000 homes throughout Galicia in the 2023-2024 biennium. The award of the UNICO plan in A Coruña will entail an investment of 26.6 million euros, of which 13.3 are financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs with funds from the Recovery Plan to achieve the objective of the Digital Agenda 2026 so that 100% of the population has access to digital connections greater than 100Mbps.
White areas
Rede Aberta’s operations will be deployed in “white areas” of the province of A Coruña, those that do not have network coverage with a speed of at least 30 Mbps, nor plans for its provision in the next three years. Rede Aberta, which has just completed two years of activity, is already present in 49 rural municipalities in Galicia. With more than 1,300 kilometres of cable laid to provide neutral fibre optic service, it reaches more than 100,000 homes. In the province of A Coruña, Rede Aberta has started its activity in 26 municipalities, where it plans to offer the connection to 77,435 homes. At present, it has already achieved 79% of its objectives, with 61,360 homes with a very high-capacity fibre connection. In some regions, such as Costa da Morte, it has concentrated its efforts on municipalities such as Cabana de Bergantiños, Cee, Corcubión, Laxe, A Laracha, Malpica, Ponteceso and Vimianzo, where it has already exceeded 18,500 connected homes, representing 53.7% of the 34,422 expected in the entire region. In some of them, due to demand, the initial forecasts have been exceeded, as is the case of Corcubión, where the number of connected homes doubled. In these municipalities, very high-capacity broadband coverage did not reach 50% of the population, which represents a reduction in their digital rights and in their possibilities for economic and vital development.
Consolidation deployment
The award of the deployment of the UNICO program in A Coruña represents “important support for the company’s plans”, explained Pere Antentas, CEO of Rede Aberta. He pointed out that it plans to invest 121 million until 2025 to reach 400,000 homes and increase dark fiber, housing and ethernet VPN services for companies, especially those that carry out their activity in rural areas. He also recalled that Rede Aberta launched XGS-PON technology in Chantada (Lugo) on September 9, which allows for a 10 Gbps connection, and that it will be extended to other regions in which it carries out its activity. “Our commitment is to eradicate the digital divide with high-capacity fiber so that all citizens and companies in Galicia have the same opportunities and rights regardless of their place of residence.” In addition, the company is promoting, together with other specialized partners, the construction of a Data Center in the Ribeira Sacra to offer Edge Computing services. The goal is for companies to have their data nearby, without the need to be in macro data centers, located in remote places that require high amounts of energy.
About Rede Aberta
Rede Aberta is a Galician company that is part of the fiber projects of the CEBF fund, which is in 7 countries in Europe. It was established in 2020 and has 20 direct employees and more than 200 indirect employees who collaborate in deploying fiber in rural municipalities. The company plans to invest 121 million euros until 2025 to reach 400,000 homes in rural areas. CEBF (Connecting Europe Broadband Fund) is a fund with 555 million euros that exclusively promotes digital infrastructure in Europe. It is managed by Cube Infrastructure Managers (“Cube IM”), specialized in infrastructure investments.
About the UNICO Plan
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), are co-financing the deployment of our fiber optic network to the white areas of the following 93 municipalities belonging to the province of A Coruña: Abegondo, Ames, Aranga, Ares, Arteixo, Arzúa, A Baña, Bergondo, Betanzos, Boimorto, Boiro, Boqueixón, Brión, Cabana de Bergatiños, Cabanas, Camariñas, Cambre, A Capela, Carballo, Cariño, Carnota, Carral, Cedeira, Cee, Cerceda, Cerdido, Coirós, Corcubión, Coristanco, A Coruña, Culleredo, Curtis, Dodro, Dumbría, Fene, Ferrol, Fisterra, Frades, Irixoa, A Laracha, Laxe, Lousame, Malpica de Bergatiños, Manón, Mazaricos, Melide, Mesía, Miño, Moeche, Monfero, Mugardos, Muros, Muxía, Narón, Neda, Negreira, Noia, Oleiros, Ordes, Oroso, Ortigueira, Outes, Oza-Cesuras, Paderne, Padrón, O Pino, A Pobra do Caramiñal, Ponteceso, Pontedeume, As Pontes de García Rodríguez, Porto do Son, Rianxo, Ribeira, Rois, Sada, San Sadurniño, Santa Comba, Santiago de Compostela, Santiso, Sobrado, As Somozas, Teo, Toques, Tordoia, Touro, Trazo, Val do Dubra, Valdoviño, Vedra, Vilarmaior, Vilasantar, Vimianzo, Zas The objective of this project is to bring fiber optics to 36,556 Real Estate Units with a census of 1,120,134 people .
Call: Program for the Universalization of Digital Infrastructures for Cohesion – Broadband (Call – ÚNICO-Banda Ancha 2022) Project: APPLICATION A CORUÑA 2022 File number: TSI-061400-2022-157 Status: in progress
