Questions/Answers

Navarre is a Spanish region with more than 10.000 km2 and near 650.000 inhabitants distributed in 272 towns, from which 186 have less than 1000 inhabitants, many of them placed in remote and rural areas where private telecommunication operators don´t find it profitable to deploy broadband connections. In 2016, only the 1% of population with less than 1000 inhabitants had broadband connection. Considering the above, the general objective of this initiative is to allow the progress of Navarre towards a connected society where territorial inequalities are reduced and everyone can benefit from an integral implementation of broadband telecommunication infrastructures that foster the deployment of services all along this region. To this aim, the plan will improve the regional and local public services by reaching the totality of public institutions with Optical Fibre and broadband networks of at least 30 Mbps, all the school centres with a connection of 100 Mbps, Secondary Education and Professional centres with 300 Mbps and Primary Care Centres with 100 Mbps. Other objective addressed is the vertebration of the territory and the reduction of the digital divide by enhancing the capillarity of the corporative fibre network and deploying suitable access points for private operators in every location. Other objectives include the economic progress and the citizenship. The first one intends to offer the best opportunities to the industry by giving all the companies a quality broadband connection of at least 30 Mbps and covering more than 75% of the companies and all the Research Institutions with 100 Mbps or more. Finally, the citizenship related one drives the progress towards having all the houses in Navarre connected to at least 30 Mbps by 2020 (and 100 Mbps by 2030). This last goal is focused on 68% of towns with less than 1000 inhabitants living in rural areas.

This initiative is fully aligned with the category addressing the “Promotion of digital transformation in the public sector”. Certainly, this plan will foster the universalization of the Electronic Administration concept in every field of the public services of Navarre, no matter the citizens are placed in remote, rural or depopulated areas, to enhance the quality of the public services offered to them. Actually, one of the main objectives of the initiative is the 100% of the local public offices distributed all over the geography of Navarra (1035 in total) to have broadband connectivity at the end of 2020.

9.C: This initiative provides broadband services to rural and remote areas through a public-private partnership model that shows attractive Return of Investment values, making it sustainable and replicable in other least developed regions. 3.8: Thanks to this initiative, all Health institutions of the public network in Navarra will have at least a 100 Mbps connection, to advance towards e-Health concept, using ICT in the diagnosis, treatment, care and prevention of diseases and spreading teleassistance and telemedicine in far locations, many of them inhabited by groups in risk of social exclusion such as elderly people or immigrants. 4.1: This project will allow the 100% of the public-school centres to have a minimum of 100 Mbps connection. It will enable an easier communication between stakeholders within the educative process: families, school centre, students…, reaching the objective of one electronic device for each student in all the centres, and having access to online learning material. 10.2: Broadband telecommunication infrastructure and services in Navarre with similar quality conditions and independently of the geographical location will assure that everyone has the same opportunities. In particular, those living in rural, remote or depopulated locations where operators do not arrive or do not provide quality connectivity services.

Socially, the initiative is enhancing the territorial cohesion and providing opportunities to all, regardless their origin, incomes or age, paying special attention to those groups in risk of social exclusion such as elderly people or immigrants, with a significant dependence of the public services. This initiative also maximizes the use and share of the infrastructures to avoid unnecessary civil works with impact on the local fauna and flora. Finally, the exploitation of a public-private model, leaded by the regional government, results in a ROI (Return of Investment) of less than 6 years, making this Broadband Director Plan sustainable in economic terms.

The unequal demographic distribution in Navarre have leaded to differences between the rural zones and the metropolitan one, where nearly three quarters of the population is concentrated. Rural and remote areas counted with a clearly lower coverage of high-quality broadband connection. This triggered differences in the provision of different public services. For instance, in the case of education, there were clear differences among the rural and metropolitan area with several centres without Educa, the informatic system of the education department, and many other new services that are not available in remote areas with a deficient connectivity. Other core services such as health were also affected by the unequal distribution in Navarre, with limited capacity of sharing or accessing to medical information (such as scanned electrocardiograms) or to advance towards teleassistance and telemedicine. In the case of Transport, the public authorities located in those under-connected locations, were not able to monitor the state of roads, highways, and act immediately when accidents or emergencies in tunnels arise. Justice, Environment, Employment and Culture and other general administrative services were also affected by a reduced broadband communication, all of them related to the limited capacity of uploading/downloading large size files in a short time.

Digital transformation provides new opportunities for economic empowerment of women: having access to high speed internet in rural areas will offer new employment opportunities for women, helping to close the gender gap. At the public sphere, the extension of broadband has also increased and fastened the communication among the 18 local offices of the Navarre Institute for Equality, the body in charge of equality policies between women and men, facilitating the early detection of gender inequality, abuse and harassment cases, as well as the sharing needs, experiences and concerns.

The main target group of this initiative are the citizens of rural areas of Navarre. Nearly a quarter of the population in Navarre could be considered as such, more specifically those living in Middle east, Ribera Alta, Estella, Norwest and Pyrene areas, all of them characterized by having lower bandwidth coverage, and consequently at risk of being victims of the digital divide. There were several public services (mainly Education, Health, Justice and Transport but also others such as Culture & Sports, Environment or Employment) affected by this situation that have been significantly improved, thanks to the deployment of this initiative. Broadly speaking, the efficiency in the management of the administration has increased notoriously. Certainly, the concept of Electronic Administration has showed a new model of relationship between citizens and public administration. The possibility to communicate with the Administration through electronic devices implied that the catalogue of services that the Administration could offer online to the citizens has increased exponentially and the waiting and answer times have been reduced significantly. Reduction of bureaucracy, paperwork and personalized services adapted to the needs of every user is now a reality in many rural areas of Navarre.

To maximize the impact and the effectiveness of this initiative, 5 different scenarios were defined based on different cultural and socioeconomic situations of Navarre, sustainable development objectives marked on the long term, and the current state of the broadband infrastructures. These scenarios represented different realities, with different priorities, and consequently with different models of investment and different levels of collaboration between public and private stakeholders, so the effective cost is shared all along the project between both parts and at the same time the full coverage of the region is assured. To act over these scenarios, a 5 years lasting action plan (2017-2021) was defined under the coordination of the Government of Navarre and the participation of more than 600 people, to guarantee the public interest of the actions proposed for each specific scenario. The actions to be carried out were divided in four different fields: i) regulatory, ii) coordination, iii) investment and iv) services. The regulatory part included all the actions regarding the elaboration of local, municipal and regional regulations to deploy correctly all the telecommunication infrastructures needed and to leverage the existing ones all over the territory. The coordination actions are addressing the optimization of the investments with collaboration agreements between public and private entities as well as for reducing entering barriers with the disposal of the surplus of capacity for private operators. Investment actions included the deployment high-quality broadband networks in all the towns, the extension of the optical Fibre network of the Navarre Government, the evolution of the current data transport network via radio, the deployment of broadband access networks in industrial areas and the interconnection points for wholesaler´s access. Finally, for the services the defined actions were centred on improving the infrastructures inventory, the connectivity and the contracted services in the different public offices.

The high cost of the civil works of the infrastructures (pipelines, ducts, booths, towers), necessary for the deployment of optical fibre conditioned the viability of the investment and represented the most critical bottleneck in the process of involving private operators in the process. To alleviate this, the policies were focused on facilitating the sharing of these infrastructures, including the ones belonging to other private agents (telecommunication operators, but also water, gas, and electricity ones) and the telecommunication centres, to optimize the investments needed. Besides, the surplus of the public optic fibre backbone was also made available in the wholesale market.

This initiative is the result of an innovative multi-stakeholder collaborative process (600 people involved). This shared view allowed the integration of further innovative approaches to increase its impact and the economic sustainability. Thus, the public-private partnership model leaded by the public side enables: - Sharing risks and investments but guaranteeing the public interest. - A better use of the existing infrastructure, making available for private operators the surplus capacity of the public network. - Reducing the dependence on private operators for the provision of local public services. - Reinvesting in prioritized actions the incomes derived from that. - Technological neutrality.

To draft the master lines of this Plan, the team in charge was based on the Broadband Investment Guide, published by the European Commission in 2014 that gives practical tips in the preparation of broadband investment public leaded projects. It allowed to have a clear idea on the election of: 1) the kind of infrastructure; 2) the investment model; 3) the business model; 4) the financing tools. They also got ideas from their participation in BCO (Broadband Competence Office) network, that brings together European national and regional public authorities in charge of broadband deployment to exchange knowledge and good practices.

The initiative has not been transferred to other contexts so far. However, after the evaluation carried out in 2019, it is being slightly adapted to include the recommendations resulting from this process (detailed later) in order to maximize its impact in Navarre, but also to increase its replicability in other regions worldwide with similar interests.

The demographic conditions of Navarre, characterized by the existence of multiple rural zones geographically dispersed in remote locations in many cases, with low population density, and therefore, with no commercial interest for large telecommunication operators, are similar to many other autonomies in Spain (such as Cantabria, Castilla la Mancha or Extremadura). Furthermore, other countries in development or with locations in risk of exclusion and digital divide could adapt this plan in order to guarantee equal opportunities in the future. In this sense, the validated public-private collaboration model that allows the risks and the infrastructures to be shared have led to an economic feasibility of the initiative that might be one of the main obstacles for its adoption in other regions or countries. Indeed, the accomplishment of this intermediate evaluation confirmed the economic viability of this model. Being the total investment for the 5 year-period is about € 54 million; an auditory report showed that this Broadband Director Plan has a very high return of the investment in less than 6 years (5,69 years) and with a respectable amount of savings that rises to 8 million for the next 10 years.

The deployment of the Broadband Director Plan in Navarre counts with € 31.35 million of public investment. Other € 22.9 million are contributed by private operators as an investment induced by the actions developed by the public administration such as grants, soft loans or infrastructure construction. It raises to a significant 54.25 mill € between public and private capital for this plan development. Besides the involvement of public workers from different areas of the Navarre Government, different private installation companies are also participating after signing 4 framework agreements. 3 additional public tenders are also open for further infrastructure related works.

This initiative is based on a public-private partnership where risks and expenses are shared between parts, being the regional government the one leading the actions carried out. Considering also that the initiative is framed in the long-term strategy of the Government of Navarre, that has been renewed in 2019, it results in a higher stability for the plan in the mid and long term. Moreover, auditory reports have confirmed the statement that the model mentioned before is financially sustainable with a return of the investment of less than 6 years and savings of 8 mill. € in 10 years.

是

NASERTIC, a public company for the integration of infrastructures, technologies and public transversal services, also oversees the public telecommunication infrastructures in Navarre. This entity has measured and evaluated the penetration of the initiative quantitatively, in terms of connectivity. Regarding the qualitative improvements in different public services, the evaluation has been carried out by the different Departments of the Government of Navarre that are in charge of each service (Administration and Central Services, Health, Education, Transport, Justice, Social Services, Employment, Culture and Sports, and Environment).

To measure the level of penetration and monitor the progress of the connectivity in the public institutions, households, industry and research centres, two different quantitative indicators were established: i) percentage of penetration of the technology in public institutions, industry and research centres, housed, and in every targeted location; and ii) Kms of Corporative Fibre Network deployed. To measure the enhanced quality of public services , the way to evaluate this impact was to identify new and improved public services, detailing the benefits derived from their provision, and explaining how they reduce the digital divide and foster the territorial cohesion.

The evaluation performed has confirmed the validity of the model proposed and the improvements achieved in the quality of different public services provided in those remote/rural areas where the broadband services are already available. As relevant impacts, each student will be able to operate with a connected electronic device when needed. Furthermore, the broadband connectivity has allowed small and remote health centres to scan documentation to include it in the clinical history, or allow the mobility of professionals, having everywhere easy access to relevant information of patients. As highlightable connectivity outputs, 85% of the local public offices in Navarre (1035) will have broadband connection by the end of 2019 (100% expected by 2020). Other key milestones include the extension of the Corporative Fibre Network from 274 Km to 901 Km, and the fact that 71% of population with less than 1000 inhabitants have already coverage of more than 30 Mbps (1% in 2016), and 100% is expected by 2020. This information is being used to create press notes that local newspapers are widely publishing, training sessions for public officers to use the new functionalities and services, open sessions directed to citizens to analyse new chances linked to the broadband deployment.

This initiative is fully aligned with other national and European public initiatives that are currently in place, generating a framework of synergic collaboration with the following Spanish and European initiatives: • PEBA. In 2013, the Spanish government established the PEBA (Broadband Extension Plan in Spanish)-NGA State Aid scheme, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), that funds telecommunications operators to increase the pace of deployment and coverage of Next Generation Access (NGA) networks in underserved areas. However, this scheme could not work if there is no effective competition between operators in the territory. In this sense, the availability in the wholesale market of the excess capacity of the backbone network of the Government of Navarra has favoured the use of this fund by operators without an own infrastructure. • Wifi4eu: The WiFi4EU initiative provides municipalities with the opportunity to apply for €15000 vouchers that will be used to install WiFi equipment in public spaces that are not already equipped with a free Wi-Fi hotspot. One of the conditions to get the vouchers for the municipalities is to assure at least 30Mbps download speeds, that couldn´t be reached in many rural areas without this initiative.

The design of this initiative is the result of a co-creative process that lasted more than 5 months and brought together more than 200 agents and 600 people from diverse backgrounds (public companies, local administrations, territorial associations, business organizations, telecommunications operators, local entities, associations, local action groups), and was driven by the current Digital Transformation Department of the Government of Navarre. The initial question to define the plan was very clear: “What can the public administration do and how should we do it?” This question was answered by members of the Interdepartmental Committee of the Broadband Plan in which almost all the Departments of the Government of Navarra participated. They collected all the information from the rest of the action groups: the legal-administrative (addressing the regulatory framework, the relational model and the contracting models), the technical, the institutional, the economic and the one provided by market agents, integrated by professionals with proven experience and knowledge in their respective areas of activity. Based on the conclusions of this process the plan was designed. For the implementation, a public-private collaboration model was established to share the risks, and 25 private operators where engaged. The evaluation process is explained in the “Evaluation” section.

The proposed public-private collaboration model has raised a significant amount of investment from the private side and engaged 25 private operators to collaborate actively in the deployment of new broadband infrastructures. This model has perfectly succeeded in answering the requirements of the different public institutions in Navarre and setting the path to connect the entire society with at least 30 Mbps. Likewise, this plan has achieved to reduce notoriously the entering barriers for private newcomers. Innovative measures such as the sharing of the existing infrastructures, including the disposal for private operators of the surplus capacity of the backbone network of the Government of Navarre has also been key in the evolution of the plan. As for future improvements, keep on paving the way to private operators’ involvement is the core of the way to go. Other recommendations include the definition of progress quantitative indicators to measure and communicate the progress in the performance of public services and the training of public officers and citizens to maximize the exploit the new communication capacities. Besides, to focus on the early adoption of 5G, there is a need to engage new collaborations and prepare the professionals involved for the new digital services.