The Camp de Tarragona region implements a ‘5G Area’ to boost digital innovation in the tourism, industry 4.0, smart cities and port sectors

• This is a territorial development project promoted by the Catalan Ministry for Digital Policy, in collaboration with Mobile World Capital Barcelona and the i2CAT Foundation, with the local leadership of Rovira i Virgili University and the support of Tarragona Provincial Council, Tarragona City Hall and Reus Town Council
• The 5G Area will have an on-site laboratory at Rovira i Virgili University which is open to access both by companies and by different local and university community stakeholders
• The 5G areas, which will be implemented throughout Catalonia, are intended to bring together different initiatives aimed at promoting this technology through training and dissemination activities, workshops, concept trials and laboratories

23 November, 2020

Tarragona, 23 November 2020-. The Camp de Tarragona 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 involves the collaboration of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the i2CAT Foundation, Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona Provincial Council, Tarragona City Hall and Reus Town Council.

The 5G Areas are intended to provide a benchmark space that brings together different initiatives geared to promoting 5G technology as a facilitator, with a view to creating infrastructure and ecosystem in the region.  These territorial areas will host training and dissemination activities, workshops, concept trials and laboratories. For some months now, 5G Areas have been defined throughout Catalonia with a view to offering the ICT ecosystem and the zone’s different social and economic sectors a test bench with which to perform their innovation activities and to develop new added-value digital products and services based on 5G.

According to Catalan Minister for Digital Policy, Jordi Puigneró, “our Government wishes to expand the 5G Areas throughout Catalonia so that we can innovate from within the territory and for the territory. This is a countrywide project that involves Catalan business fabric and institutions”.

The nerve centre for the Camp de Tarragona 5G Area will be located at the facilities of the Sescelades campus of Rovira i Virgili University, where activities and training initiatives will be organised with stakeholders. It will also provide companies and different stakeholders access to an open 5G laboratory for testing digital products and services. On the same campus, the URV Foundation will offer the Technology Transfer Centre for providing students and companies workshops and sessions both on 5G and smart connectivity and on their application in the territory’s major sectors of production.

The project is intended to boost a series of strategic sectors for the Camp de Tarragona region as a whole such as tourism, ports, industry 4.0, with particular impact on the petrochemical industry and, lastly, on smart cities. It is these sectors that the Area will focus on most. The 5G Area’s connectivity will mean it can be deployed to meet the zone’s specific social and economic needs.

Eduard Martín, CIO and Director of Mobile World Capital Barcelona’s 5G programme emphasised that the “Camp de Tarragona 5G Area will allow for the generation of synergies in the region with a view to dynamising the business ecosystem and developing high-impact services based on cutting-edge technology such as 5G. This will contribute to strategic sectors such as industry 4.0, smart cities and tourism”. According to Rosa Paradell, Innovation Business Development Director for the public sector of the i2CAT Foundation, “setting the Camp de Tarragona 5G Area in motion will make it possible to identify the 5G applications that will contribute to the competitiveness of the territory’s economic fabric, and will directly involve its stakeholders and help them to detect and make the most of all the benefits and future applications enabled by this disruptive technology”.

This project joins the Terres de l’Ebre 5G Area and the Terres de Ponent 5G Area, which were announced in July and October and are addressed to dynamising and digitalising areas that include the rural, agri-food, commercial, logistical and energy sectors.

An opportunity for the territory

The project has arisen from the collaboration of different institutions in the territory. Noemí Llauradó, President of Tarragona Provincial Council, stressed “the importance for Tarragona Provincial Council of backing initiatives such as this that help to build a better future for our towns and cities by increasing employment opportunities for the public and halting population decline”.

The Vice-Chancellor of the URV, María José Figueras, stated that “the creation of the Camp de Tarragona 5G Area presents an opportunity to lead the digital transformation of the territory while promoting southern Catalonia’s expertise in the use of the advanced digital technologies that will play a crucial role in the economy over the coming years”. She also added that “the establishment of the 5G Area will enable us to boost the process of digital transformation of our facilities and therefore establish a future Smart Campus, which will benefit the whole community, open the way for new research and knowledge transfer projects in digital aspects in the URV’s different areas of knowledge and allow us to reappraise university teaching and to establish new models”.

The Mayor of Tarragona, Pau Ricomà, likewise stated that “at Tarragona City Hall we have been working to implement 5G for over a year. This technology will provide us with a new strategic infrastructure in which recently-established connectivity will make it possible to further the city’s expertise and competitiveness and help us to meet the city’s needs and respond to its challenges. What we are doing here today is taking a determined step to ensure that Tarragona and, therefore, the Camp de Tarragona region, are fully connected. This is even more crucial as technology is essential for the economic recovery that is now so necessary”.

The Mayor of Reus, Carles Pellicer, considers that the arrival of 5G in the city “offers a wealth of opportunities that will provide a major boost to a strategic economic sector that is destined to become even more influential in the future. That will most certainly yield new quality professional and employment opportunities.” Reus Town Council is working with the South Catalonia ICT cluster on the implementation of 5G projects in the territory. Training has now been given and several projects are being coordinated. Work is also being done to develop a training programme for companies interested in implementing 5G projects in Reus.

5G Area Strategy

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 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 models of business.