Huesca’s experts and business leaders attend a conference to analyze the importance of 5G for the province

20 January, 2022

Under the title ‘Companies at 5G speed’, the City Council and Provincial Council of Huesca, a town in the Spanish Pyrenees, together with Mobile World Capital Barcelona brought together experts and business leaders of the region to talk about how technology can help develop this scarcely populated and beautiful area of Spain.

The event, held last Wednesday in the Palacio de Congresos of the city of Huesca, had the dissemination of the benefits and applications of 5G technology for the business sector, promoting the connectivity in rural areas and strengthening the technological specialization of the city of Huesca as its main objectives.

The importance of 5G goes far beyond a significant increase in browsing speed. The CIO and director of Intelligent Connectivity at Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Eduard Martín, pointed out “improvement of competitiveness” as the main aspect, since this technology can be “decisive” in achieving “greater productivity, mobility and profitability in various economic activities”. In this sense, Martín stressed that “this fifth generation is going to be crucial for data analysis, security, the Internet of Things and open platforms… All of them decisive aspects for companies in order to reach a global focus, establish alliances and expand business opportunities.”

This also applies to cities and territories. The mayor of Huesca, Luis Felipe, emphasized that the city “is currently specializing in technology and becoming a hub of knowledge, which will result in increased opportunities for its citizens and a strengthened economy based on the digital market”. This event, he added, “is an example of the collaboration of institutions and business sector in order to promote the use of technology and its application in day-to-day life”.

The opening of an Amazon Web Services data storage center at the Plhus logistics platform in Huesca and the in Cybersecurity and Data Protection training program to be hosted by the Huesca Campus of the University of Zaragoza at the Walqa Technology Park are just some examples of the city’s specialization.

Also present was the President of the Provincial Council of Huesca, Miguel Gracia, who believes that the constant improvement in connectivity to be “a crucial element to reduce the digital gap between big cities and rural areas, thus achieving greater opportunities for personal and professional development and public services.” Given that the digital market is mainly focused on large population hubs, he said, the institutions must ensure that they provide basic services to all their citizens.

In this sense, the Provincial Council of Huesca launched, in collaboration with Embou, the Broadband Extension Plan, which has implemented more than 30 Mbps connectivity in 321 towns in the province of Huesca in recent years. In addition, the Wifi Plan has made it possible to provide financing for Internet access points in 37 locations. Currently, the council is considering directly helping the 0.4% of the population still lacks connectivity.

‘Companies at 5G speed’ featured lectures by other experts such as the head of the National 5G Observatory, Federico Ruiz, and the Head of Digital Services of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Tomeu Sabater. The Innovation Manager of Telefónica España, Mercedes Fernández Gutiérrez; the Product Strategy Manager and head of solutions for connectivity and digitization of rural areas at Cellnex Telecom, Manu Cañete; the Director of Technology at Amazon Web Services, Carlos Carús, and the manager of R&D&I projects within the Training and Research Department of Podoactiva, Marina Azpíroz Puente also attended the event, which was moderated the Councilor for Technology and Electronic Administration, Cristina de la Hera.