The implementation of the Penedès 5G Area will open new opportunities in healthcare, mobility, entertainment, and talent

• This is a territorial development project promoted by the Ministry for Digital Policy, in collaboration with Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the i2CAT Foundation, with the support of Barcelona Provincial Council, Igualada Town Council, Vilanova i la Geltrú Town Council, TICAnoia, Neàpolis and Telefónica
• In the initial phase, the 5G Area will provide coverage in Igualada and Vilanova i la Geltrú based on the commercial 5G network deployment planned by Telefónica
• The purpose of the 5G areas, which will be established throughout Catalonia, is to promote this technology by means of training and dissemination activities, workshops, concept trials and laboratories.

14 December, 2020

Igualada, 14 December 2020-. The Penedès 5G Area was presented this morning. This is a project promoted by the Regional Government of Catalonia, through the Ministry for Digital Policy and Public Administration, as part of the 5G Strategy of Catalonia. The project also features the participation and collaboration of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the i2CAT Foundation, Barcelona Provincial Council, Igualada Town Council, Vilanova i la Geltrú Town Council, TICAnoia, Neàpolis and Telefónica.

The Penedès 5G Area project is based on the deployment of Telefónica’s commercial 5G network with a view to promoting training and dissemination, workshops, the use of a laboratory and concept pilot trials featuring this technology. It is thus expected to encourage the joint action of industry –which can develop public-oriented 5G solutions–, civil society, the public authorities and academia in establishing integrated solutions by defining a specific and personalised model of government to dynamise, attract initiatives to and exert a global impact on the territory. The Penedès 5G Area includes the Penedès territorial jurisdiction, which covers the Anoia, Alt Penedès, Baix Penedès and Garraf regions. It will initially provide coverage in Igualada and Vilanova i la Geltrú based on the commercial 5G network deployment planned by Telefónica.

During the presentation of this new 5G Area, which is the fourth to be implemented, the Minister for Digital Policy, Jordi Puigneró, announced that “the Ministry for Digital Policy has presented the Next Generation EU European recovery fund with a major 25-million euro project for boosting the 5G Areas and the deployment of 5G in Catalonia”. “That will enable us to maximise the impact and objectives of the different 5G Areas, both territorially and on a sector-by-sector basis in their areas of specialisation”, added the Minister, who emphasised the importance of the 5G Areas ‘in guaranteeing the right of the territory to innovate from within the territory’”.

Implementing the 5G Area will give a significant economic boost to the territory and encourage innovation, thus improving the competitiveness of companies. That will be possible because of the performance of pilot projects, which will help companies and stakeholders to make their management more efficient by transforming their business models and creating synergies with other stakeholders in the ecosystem.

Growth sectors in the zone

The 5G Area is expected to become a key tool for the development of different industries and services of major significance in the territory. In social healthcare, different projects that are already underway may be given a boost by the arrival of 5G. One such project is the 4D Health Innovation Simulation Center, in Igualada, which could become a benchmark in Catalonia for applied 5G. In the Garraf region, there are also other projects in this field that could benefit from 5G. These include the Specialisation and Territorial Competitiveness Project (PECT), “Active and healthy ageing and dependence” and the work of the Institute of Robotics for Dependency (IRD). Other sectors such as mobility and connected cars can likewise use 5G coverage to create new projects and services.

In the media and entertainment industries, the city of Vilanova i la Geltrú already has different initiatives: a vocational training diploma in video games and virtual environments and programmes such as the European MedGaims project, which is focused on virtual reality and gaming in tourism environments, plus a virtual reality laboratory, headed by the i2CAT Foundation under the umbrella of the Neàpolis public agency for innovation. Alongside the arrival of 5G, they can all help to retain talent, to attract new digital professionals and to generate a need for skilled ICT profiles.

Eduard Martín, CIO and Director of Mobile World Capital Barcelona’s 5G programme emphasised that “the Penedès 5G Area will provide companies with tools to develop cutting-edge projects with 5G technology in areas such as the social healthcare sector, mobility and entertainment, which will encourage the region’s growth”.

Similarly,  Sergi Figuerola, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of the i2CAT Foundation, stated that the “implementation of the Penedès 5G Area will provide an opportunity for the economic fabric, which will make the most of the future potential of 5G technology to boost different projects and initiatives already underway in the territory. Examples are the i2CAT Foundation’s virtual reality laboratory and Neàpolis, where new HoloMeeting systems are being researched. The 5G Area will allow the applications developed in it to benefit from 5G technology in order to transform and thus to develop a more cutting-edge, more innovative and more end user-friendly system”.

According to the General Director of Telefónica in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Murcia, “our involvement in the Penedès 5G Area is yet another demonstration of Telefónica’s commitment to the deployment of 5G in Catalonia, which by the end of the year will reach over 80% of Catalonia’s population”.

5G Area Strategy

This project joins the Terres de l’Ebre 5G Area, the Terres de Ponent 5G Area and the Camp de Tarragona 5G Area, which were announced in recent months and are addressed to energising and digitalising areas that include the rural, agri-food, commercial, tourist, port, logistical and energy sectors.

The 5G Areas are being established with a view to enhancing the Catalan 5G ecosystem and turning Catalonia into an international benchmark for 5G technology. They are intended to improve existing technological services throughout Catalonia, to promote commercial use of the 5G network and to encourage its deployment by promoting use cases and concept trials in real environments and stimulating a digital economy beyond the cities.

The 5G Areas are expected to become both long-lasting structures throughout Catalonia with a model of public and private co-investment and also benchmarks for disseminating and providing training in the potential offered by this technology, its facilitating and integrating nature and its capacity to generate new business models.