Barcelona aspires to become a European 5G Open Lab

Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday 9
January 2018– Today, the Regional Government of Catalonia, Barcelona
City Hall, the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, the i2CAT Foundation,
the CTTC (Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya), Atos and the
UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) will present the agreement they have
signed to promote the 5GBarcelona initiative, which has been designed to
convert Catalonia and the city itself into a European digital innovation hub
within the 5G field.

5G technology will open the market to a change in technology
and create smart environments and advanced industries that will be available to
the general public and emerging economic sectors. 5G will also improve access
to the so-called Internet of Things, opening the door to the creation of
innovative new services in fields such as smart autonomous vehicles,
drone-based services, industry 4.0 and access to remote eHealth services,
improving user experience and providing support to critical services. The
deployment of 5G technology will also bring about a technological
transformation in services and infrastructures, help to bridge the digital
divide and create opportunities for the new generations.

Catalonia is a leader in R&D in 5G technologies. Since
the 5G PPP initiative was launched as part of the European Commission’s Horizon
2020 programme in 2014, research institutes based in Catalonia have received
funding to take part in 22 of the 37 projects that have been granted, a number
that strengthens Catalonia’s position as the major player in the 5G ecosystem
on an international level.

5GBarcelona will create a European 5G digital hub, based on
an open experimental infrastructure in the city’s metropolitan area that will
serve as a civic technological laboratory for testing 5G technologies and
services. The hub will provide an open innovation environment built on the
cooperation between public and private entities and will create synergies with
the ecosystem generated by the Mobile World Congress (MWC) and the other
technology fairs that are held in Barcelona. At the same time, it will also
stimulate the existing innovation ecosystem in Barcelona, help to attract
foreign investment, boost tech startups and generate an entire industry around
5G technology.

As part of the next phases in the 5G PPP programme this
year, the European Commission will select a small number of projects with the
aim of creating testing and validation environments for 5G technologies, and
5GBarcelona hopes to be among them.

Catalonia is not merely a world leader in R&D that
encompasses pioneering companies and institutions: its capital is also the
mobile capital of the world and also hosts the Mobile World Congress.

Barcelona has already taken on the role of a testing ground
in the new 5G paradigm thanks to the 5GCity project, in which entities such as
Barcelona City Hall, i2CAT, betevé TV channel and CellNex, among others, also
participate with the aim to develop a pilot based on the deployment of a
neutral 5G network.

In the upcoming months, the founding members of the
5GBarcelona initiative will begin to implement the action plan designed to
deploy the experimental infrastructure, identify verticals that can be offered
support and services, incorporate other entities and companies in this joint
venture and involve the general public in Barcelona and Catalonia in this open,
strategic initiative to make 5GBarcelona the first 5G Living Lab in Europe and
the world.