There are many reports that highlight this phenomenon: wealth is concentrated in the big cities and poverty is unfortunately concentrated in the smallest municipalities, which for our country is located in Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha, where 90% of agricultural activities and more are located. Unemployment. And this poverty causes many additional problems: Perennial depopulation, aging, exhaustion Emphasize lands that leave their children and forget them. And, as a result, a chronic process, of the kind that existed before the chicken or the egg, is poverty or depopulation.
Widespread 5G access
Widespread 5G access is one of the relevant EU projects to mitigate this problem and adjust the population. And in rural areas, it is projected to be 89.5% by 2025. To this end, the European Commission has approved a state aid regime allowing the mass deployment of these networks, particularly in disadvantaged rural areas with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
While important, will this improvement in coverage (a 51% increase in penetration is expected from 2018 for the rural world) be enough?
My answer is no. We need to achieve higher penetration figures, not in population but in territory.
Because?
There is a simple strategic reason. In this sense we cannot allow even a trace of weakness and the countryside is not a source of opportunities. Because a whole sector of the economy and the agri-food sector happens in these regions, in which we have global leaders and leaders (First producer of pig, cow, fruit, oil and citrus fruits in the European Union), contributing 9.7% to the GDP, it is also a driving force for the tourism sector. Because ultimately our daily food is produced in rural areas. As unbelievable as it may seem to us, our country is still deficient in basic production of commodities like grains for example. So, we cannot afford a poor rural area that cannot be fed daily.
Agrotech
That's why 5G is more important than we think: not only for personal connectivity, but also as a source and engine for innovation in the so-called “agrotech”, whose main objectives are to improve productivity, robotization and integration. Data mining in agricultural processes. Agriculture could be the next suitable scenario for digital transformation. So, let's look at some examples: advanced greenhouses, precision viticulture or Drones. Although there are many more.
Fortunately, Spain is a leader in agrotech with an ecosystem of over 200 companies. And we talk about many other technologies, although we highlight the increasing interaction in bio-food with everything related to AI. Here again 5G plays an important role: not only for the sector, but also for the food processing sector to which it is connected, as they are called. Hyper-connected smart factories.
That's why I maintain my view that we need massive penetration of 5G in rural areas, the same way we're getting it in cities. It may seem “naive”, however, there are already technologies that allow this full 5G coverage in an economically feasible way: for example, there are recent developments in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) that allow approx. A new constellation of low-altitude satellites as truly 5G-capable base stations, especially for IOT applications. We will be doing commercial deployments soon.
Finally, we have a beautiful view of the countryside. We saidComing out of the pandemic, there is a big return to teleworking.. But that didn't happen, at least in the short term. But that doesn't matter. Because I already know what the magic recipe for making it is: 5G, with better rural penetration. If earlier cities grew next to springs and rivers, now they will grow closer to the new energy of 5G.
