In August 2010, the Spanish government approved the allocation of €200 million to fund the expansion of broadband coverage and investment in next-generation access (NGA) networks. Despite having a digital strategy since 2006, Spain is only now releasing a plan (Plan Avanza 2) focused on stimulating investment in NGA. The relatively small fund is balanced by numerous other initiatives being taken by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade (MITYC). However, Spain will have to hurry up if it is to achieve its ambition to be a “leading European knowledge economy.”

 

On 8 August 2010, the MITYC announced a €200 million plan (Plan Avanza 2) to develop broadband coverage and infrastructure. The plan offers financial aid to two different types of project: those aimed at expanding broadband coverage at the “basic speed” (1Mbps) to all areas; and those with speeds of above 50Mbps.

 

Plan Avanza 2 is a continuation of Plan Avanza (launched in 2006 as Spain’s Information Society Strategy), which mainly focused on promoting innovation in the ICT sector, supporting SMEs in the integration of ICT, and investing in the digital content sector. With Plan Avanza 2, Spain starts to catch up with other digital strategies launched during the last two years by focusing on expanding the coverage of “basic speed” to a majority of the 3% of the population without broadband coverage, and most importantly by promoting investment in NGA.

 

However, despite addressing the matter of incentives for investment, Plan Avanza 2’s fund allocated to the deployment of fiber is small. In France, the cost of providing FTTH to 80% of households is likely to be over €15 billion, and Spain has poor FTHH coverage that currently only reaches approximately 2% of households.