Currently, the Government of Spain maintains its commitment to promoting digital technologies. As reflected in the 2023 General State Budget (PGE), Spain will invest 45% of the funds in the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan.
Accounts with an investment character that are committed to business competitiveness, connectivity, and the promotion of R + D + i. Focusing on digital connectivity, the budget report points out the deployment of 5G to achieve greater coverage throughout the national territory.
Future plans for 2023
This investment focuses on the plan called “UNICO 5G-Redes”, a program of Universalization of Digital Infrastructures for Cohesion that is under the determined principles of “Digital Spain 2026”, which seeks to extend 5G connectivity through terrestrial or satellite technologies.
In the next year 2023, the implementation of digital services that enhance this 5G technology will continue to advance with an investment of 450 million euros. With this allocation they intend to guarantee digital connectivity throughout the population, breaking with the low coverage of rural areas. In addition, they will be implemented in educational, healthcare and health areas.
To understand more in depth, we will begin by briefly explaining its history and its functionalities.
What is 5G and what does it offer?
The arrival of 5G or the fifth generation of mobile telephony has revolutionized the world of telecommunications since its appearance in 2019. This technology precedes the 4G used by most devices today.
This mobile technology represents a smarter architecture focused on hyperconnectivity, through a wireless and virtual access network (RAN). In this way, it uses a completely different technique from previous generations, which only sought to guarantee mobile data services and provide secure networks.
Offering us an OWA (Open Wireless Architecture) network capable of providing greater adaptability and flexibility to the current connection needs of both industries and users. However, the biggest advance is linked to the capacity and speed of data transmission with a maximum of 10 Gbps (Gigabytes per second) and connectivity to any device with a network, also known as IOT (Internet of Things). This term refers to the interconnection of computing devices embedded in everyday goals. Most devices have the word SMART in front, a good example is the Smatwatch, Smartable…
Non Standlone and Standalone
Today there are two sources of connection to 5G, the NSN (Non-Standalone) and SA (Standalone). Translated into Spanish, Non-Standalone is a network that needs infrastructures of the fourth generation or 4G to be able to work. Known as a hybrid network between 4G and 5G capable of obtaining certain benefits from 5G, but not its full potential. Being the 5G network currently used in Spain.
On the other hand, Standalone is a type of autonomous network that does not require any infrastructure of the previous generation, but requires the deployment of new antennas, due to the change of frequencies. Being the only way to get all the benefits of the full 5G network.
The implementation of 5G Standlone technology completely revolutionizes the world of communications, as well as the world we know today. Through this news “How will the world change the 5G network? – ActionsDATA” we can see the possible impacts and changes that will occur in our environments.
Differences and main advantages of 5G
In order to know in depth, the benefits of this technology, we will detail the main differences with respect to the previous network system.
- Speed
As we mentioned earlier, one of the biggest benefits of this latest generation of networks is speed, which reaches a peak speed of up to 10 gigabytes.
It represents an abysmal difference from 4G with a maximum speed of 200 Mbps megabytes per second)
- Minimum attention
Latency refers to the waiting time it takes to reproduce the information, where there is also a great difference compared to the fourth generation with 100 ms (milliseconds) compared to 1 ms.
Thanks to 5G, long delay times are over, not only in mobile phones, but also in televisions and other devices connected to the internet.
- Increased coverage
The 5G network will yield a bandwidth of 26 Ghz, which will provide better geographical coverage throughout the population, which provides a solution to one of the biggest problems related to connection difficulties in certain rural areas, facilitating an efficient service. In addition, it will provide greater coverage inside buildings.
- Adaptation to a greater number of devices.
Being a network concentrated in the IOT, it allows the connection of multiple devices at the same time, with up to 100 devices per square meter, which is equivalent to 1,000,000 per kilometer. This represents a change of 100 more devices per kilometer compared to the 4G network that allows a maximum of 10,000 devices.
The implementation of the 5G Standalone network in Spain would not only provide us with a mobile technology, but also implies a development in society and in the economy. If we move this network to sectors (automotive, health and transport) we would improve the efficiency and productivity of remote operations, improving the services provided.
The deployment of the 5G network
The deployment of the 5G network will not be an isolated process by 2023, but it is a sustained trend over time, with the goal that 75% of the population uses 5G by 2025.
In Spain, there are several mobile companies that offer this type of network in their service. However, its implementation has been slow and irregular, since not all current devices have the 5G connection and there is not enough infrastructure.
The granting of aid from the UNICO 5G program that we have mentioned above, seeks to accelerate, and promote this technology both in national and municipal territories.
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