There are numerous reports highlighting this phenomenon. Wealth is concentrated in the largest cities and, unfortunately, poverty is concentrated in the smallest municipalities. In the case of our country, the municipality is located in Andalusia, Extremadura, and Castilla-La Mancha, and has a very large population, with 90% engaged in agricultural activities. unemployment. And this poverty brings many other problems. Permanent population decline, aging populations, constant depletion of land as children leave and are forgotten. So it’s a chronic process, a chicken-and-egg kind of thing that happened before poverty and population decline.
Widespread 5G access
The widespread use of 5G access is one of the relevant EU projects to alleviate this problem and solve the population problem. and in rural areas, it is projected to be 89.5% by 2025. To this end, the European Commission has approved a state aid scheme that allows for the large-scale deployment of these networks, especially in rural areas with a population of less than 10,000 people.
And while important, is this increased penetration (in rural areas, penetration is expected to increase by 51% from 2018) enough?
My answer is no. We need to achieve high penetration rates in terms of territory, not population.
why?
There’s a simple strategic reason. We will not tolerate even the slightest weakness in this respect, nor will we allow the countryside to fail to become a source of opportunity. Because in these regions there is an entire economic sector, the agri-food sector, in which our country is a world leader and benchmark, accounting for 9.7% of GDP and also a driving force in tourism. sector. And because, after all, our daily food is produced in the countryside. And as incredible as it may seem to us, our country still runs a deficit in the production of basic products, such as grain, for example. Therefore, we cannot afford poor rural areas that cannot afford our daily meals.
agrotech
This is why 5G is more important than we think. It is important not only for the personal connection itself, but also as a source and driver of innovation in so-called “agrotech”. Its main objectives are to increase productivity, introduce robotization, and introduce agricultural technology. Utilization of data in agricultural processes. Therefore, agriculture could be the next relevant scenario for digital transformation. So let’s look at some examples: advanced greenhouses, precision viticulture, drones, etc. But there are many others.
Fortunately, Spain is a leader in agrotech, with an ecosystem of over 200 companies. And we’re talking about a lot of the technologies involved, emphasizing the growing interaction in the biofood space, along with everything related to AI. 5G will play a key role here as well. It is important not only for the sector itself, but also for the food processing industry in which it is embedded, the so-called ultra-connected smart factory.
That’s why I maintain the view that 5G needs to have as high penetration in rural areas as it does in urban areas. Although it may seem “naive,” the technology already exists to enable this full 5G coverage in an economically viable manner. For example, there are the latest developments in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), which, broadly speaking, enable new things. Connect low-altitude satellite coastlines to true 5G-enabled base stations, especially for IoT applications. Commercial expansion will begin soon.
Finally, you’ll be rewarded with an idyllic view of the countryside. We have previously said that once we get through the pandemic, there will be a massive return to the countryside thanks to telework. But that is not the case, at least not in the short term. But it doesn’t matter. That’s because you already know what the magic recipe is to make this happen. That is 5G, which has a high penetration rate in rural areas. If once a village grew next to a spring or a river, now it will thrive next to the new possibilities of 5G.
