Spain’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation said it will be allocating EUR 250 million in funding this year to bring high-speed FTTH to underserved areas. The figure is the highest ever annual amount of state aid freed up for fibre-optic broadband rollout, up from last year’s EUR 150 million, and is designed to ensure the government reaches its stated objective of bringing internet at speeds of at least 100 Mbps to 100 percent of the Spanish population by 2025.
Under the new ‘Universalisation of Digital Infrastructures for Cohesion’ (UNICO) programme, the ministry will shortly be inviting operators to apply for the funds to reach areas still lacking high-speed fibre broadband connections. According to government data, some 88 percent of the Spanish population could already access 100 Mbps residential connections at the end of 2020, a figure that’s set to rise to nearly 93 percent by the end of this year.
Additional goals of the government’s Spain Digital 2025 Agenda include bringing scalable broadband connections at speeds of at least 1Gbps to all of Spain’s industrial estates by 2025 and expanding 5G access to at least 75 percent of the population.
