The 5G project in rural areas, co-financed by the European Union, has begun to be implemented in the Alentejo. If successful, a second version will follow in the north of Portugal. In the long term, the company's aim is to show that it “has the necessary skills to create a multi-operator infrastructure” for mobile networks, the CEO of dstelecom told Jornal Económico.

Portuguese wholesale telecommunications operator Dstelecom intends to expand the 5G project it is developing in the Alentejo to the north of Portugal and show the market that it can export its business model for the mobile network, namely fifth and sixth generation. In other words, “renting” this infrastructure to retail operators, as happens with fiber optics.

“Our medium- and long-term goal is to demonstrate to operators that we have the necessary skills to create a multi-operator infrastructure in 5G. We're even thinking about 6G, which will come along in another year or so,” Dstelecom's CEO told Jornal Económico, referring to the European project to bring 5G to areas of low population density, whose consortium the company is leading.

The consortium between dstelecom, NOS and consultants Innovation Point and IrRadiare applied to the Connecting European Facility (CEF) fund in the middle of this year and won. In the short term, in 2025, the plan is to apply again. “The CEF call will still be open, so if this project, which involves some municipalities in the Alentejo, is successful, we'll do a second version in the north of the country,” Ricardo Salgado told JE.

The “5G rural - 5G for rural smart communities of tomorrow” project dates back to July, when the consortium announced that the fifth generation network would reach 70,000 people in remote areas of the Alentejo by 2026, as part of an investment of 5.3 million euros, co-financed (75%) by Europe. The entry of 5G is seen through digital solutions for health, education, energy, agriculture, tourism, art and culture and makes Portugal the first country where 5G - in the 3.6 GHz frequency band - reaches remote regions to support use cases / pilots.

“It's not just about having better communications. It's trying to foster use cases in these regions that help various sectors of activity. Let's say the European Union said 'show that this will be useful for the communities'. There's no rocket science there. What these companies are trying to replicate in these areas is what is already happening in the larger urban centers, with some specifics linked to agriculture, such as drones to monitor farms or apply pesticides remotely,” says the CEO of Dstelecom.

In practice, what is being implemented? For example, devices for remote monitoring of the elderly, a digital platform for monitoring and cognitive stimulation of seniors, real-time alarming, drones to monitor agricultural crops, augmented and virtual reality technologies in schools so that students in isolated locations have access to more immersive learning experiences, a cloud to analyze energy consumption, the creation of a Renewable Energy Community (REC) and the placement of an ultra-high definition videowall (LCD or LED panels) to display artistic works.

We are to operators as Macro or Recheio are to small supermarkets

dstelecom's CEO reminds JE that this journey began in 2008, when the Braga-based company created a fiber network with FTTH (Fibre-To-The-Home) capillarity to provide telecommunications services to retail operators (MEO, NOS, Vodafone, Nowo...).

“When we started operating, we built fiber networks in areas of low population density, where these operators, who were our potential customers, didn't have them yet. It's not that we only know how to build in these areas, but it was where our business niche and opportunity lay. We quickly went from covering 79-80 municipalities to almost 150 municipalities and a million homes today,” says Ricardo Salgado.

“We've been working with the operators to show them that this can also be done on the mobile network, instead of having to invest in their own passive (towers) and active (equipment that is placed there to radiate the spectrum) networks. We propose, at least in areas of low population density, to create a multi-operator mobile infrastructure in which only the spectrum would be owned by the retail operator, just like television content for fixed telephony, in which everyone has their own content package,” he explains.

“It's been a long conversation, because there's all their history and they see us as the new kid on the block, even though we've been here for a few years,” says Ricardo Salgado, speaking to JE at the presentation of 5G solutions for the Alentejo.

dstelecom has a B2B (Business-to-Business) business and works with all the retail operators, so it sees the entry of a new operator into the market - Digi will be formally presented this Monday - as a way of “bringing some new dynamics to the sector, particularly in areas of low population density, which are not always on the operators' agenda”. Even so, Ricardo Salgado acknowledges that he understands “the concerns” of the operators, “because the country is relatively small for the investments that have to be made in telecommunications”, although he believes that the “industry is mature and has shown itself to be resilient”, so “a new balance will be found”.

Source: Jornal Económico