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Hispasat and Eurona reach an agreement to extend 100 Mbps satellite Internet in rural Spain

December 9, 2021

Hispasat and Eurona have reached an agreement to extend satellite Internet of up to 100 Mbps in rural Spain seeking to narrow the digital divide suffered by a large part of its population.

Both companies expand their alliance in the provision of satellite connectivity services in Spain in a context in which, according to estimates by the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, by the end of 2021 more than 1 million Spanish households will not have Internet access of 100 Mbps.

In this way, with their agreement, both companies will offer the rural environment a high-speed Internet access solution, which immediately meets the 100 Mbps connectivity objective set by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Spanish government for 100% of the population in 2025.

This alliance will materialize in the launch by Eurona of a competitive satellite broadband offer throughout Spain with speeds of up to 100 Mbps. In addition, it will not require a fee for the registration or installation of the equipment, since the inhabitants of rural Spain will be able to benefit from the Broadband Aid Program promoted by Red.es, through which people or entities of populations with less than 5,000 inhabitants who do not have fixed broadband services with a download speed of more than 10 Mbps will be able to cover up to 400 euros of the expenses derived from the acquisition of equipment, installation and commissioning.

Eurona and Hispasat thus respond to a real problem suffered by rural environments, in which the deployment of terrestrial infrastructure (fiber optics and 5G) is often insufficient. In this way, they contribute with technology to alleviate the digital divide – which not only households suffer, but also SMEs – one of the causes that also contributes to limiting depopulation, since it allows to articulate the social structuring of the entire territory around digitalization, the fixation of the population to the rural world and the equal rights and opportunities of all citizens.

Precisely, universal coverage and its rapid deployment make the satellite an ideal technological solution to democratize Internet access and take it where the other alternatives do not reach. For this reason, Hispasat launched last November a wholesale, neutral and open service that can include telecommunications operators such as Eurona, in order to immediately provide a guarantee Internet service anywhere in the country.

According to Fernando Ojeda, CEO of Eurona "this new agreement renews and reaffirms our commitment to bring satellite connectivity and high-speed Internet access to any point in our geography. Just as we have been doing for 15 years. In addition, our long-standing relationship with Hispasat allows us to distinguish ourselves by the continuous improvement in the service to our customers, making possible a real leap in quality in the digitalization of the emptied Spain".

For his part, Ignacio Sanchis, commercial director of HISPASAT, said that "we are very pleased to have reached this agreement with a company like Eurona, which is joined by a long history of collaboration in the fight against the digital divide in Spain. We are convinced that we are facing a unique opportunity to promote universal connectivity in the Spanish rural territory – not only through access to a quality residential Internet, but also through the digitalization of its productive sectors – and we believe that having an ally like Eurona will be fundamental to make this objective a reality".