The President of the Catalan Government, Pere Aragonès, has claimed this morning, from the Mobile World Congress 2021, the importance of technological development in the daily lives of people. "Our obsession is that technological improvement, known as the digital revolution, serves to improve the lives of citizens", he said, and asked to put it "at the service of democratic empowerment, the fight against social inequality and environmental and ecological commitment", which are the main objectives of Catalonia "and of humanity as a whole". "This social character is which gives more sense than ever to this year's edition of Mobile", he reiterated.

"The great transformations that we want to address as a government: social and economic, green, feminist and democratic, need to be able to erase the borders that we have known until now and, thanks to technology, we can do it", said the Catalan Head of Government

The president has launched this message at the official presentation of the stand of the Catalan Government of the MWC, Digital Catalonia, where he attended the first live demonstration of the pilot '5G is the new mobility' of connected and remote driving with 5G.

With this project, the Government wants to project the country's leadership in the development of 5G and how this new connectivity will improve key areas for citizens such as mobility. The pilot '5G is the new mobility' shows how the "everything connected" will improve the mobility of the future, making it more efficient and, above all, safer.

Aragonès praised the work of "hundreds of Catalan start-ups" that, starting from a social need and through technological possibilities, "have moved the country forward again". And he has asked to give them all the support because "they are called to consolidate Catalonia as the world capital of 5G". "5G technology is already a reality and is an example of how, in Catalonia, some of the things that seem impossible to do we make possible", he reiterated. A possibility that has become a reality thanks to "an alliance between different areas that join forces to move forward: between the entrepreneurial community, research and technology transfer centers, the momentum and commitment of public administrations, the country's digital industry and this entrepreneurial mentality that has always been present in Catalonia, which has allowed us to make great revolutions and which is now calling us to make new ones".

Thanks to this union of forces, the president stressed that the MWC, which opened its doors today, is not just another trade fair, it is "an event that takes the economic frontiers of activity and dynamism far beyond what had been known until now and that allows this to lead to new projects".

For his part, Vice President Puigneró reaffirmed that "the MWC places Catalonia as the epicenter of the most decisive technologies of the moment". "It is a great country brand and places us in this new digital era", he said.

The new connected mobility with 5G

In the near future, thanks to the low latency and bandwidth of the fifth generation of mobile telephony, vehicles will be able to communicate with infrastructures, with other vehicles and with their environment, which will provide real-time information to improve road safety, infrastructure management and mobility efficiency.

In this sense, the pilot of the new mobility that hosts the Digital Catalonia stand consists of the simulation of the use case of telecare of a driver on the road, and the remote driving in real time of his vehicle in front of a risk situation. It also incorporates a demonstration of real-time delivery of audiovisual information content in the vehicle and infrastructure thanks to 5G connectivity.

With this project, the Government wants to project the country's leadership in the development of 5G and how this new connectivity will improve key areas for citizens such as mobility.

In this sense, the pilot '5G is the new mobility' shows how the "connected everything" will improve the mobility of the future, making it more efficient and, above all, safer.

The pilot is a joint project of the Department of the Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territory, the Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Media (CCMA), the i2CAT Foundation, Callnex and Robots Mir, within the framework of the 5G Strategy of Catalonia, the 5G Barcelona alliance.

This use case is part of the 5GMed Corridor project (Mediterranean 5G Corridor), the cross-border corridor between Catalonia and Occitania where the first tests of 5G mobile services and communications with autonomous and connected vehicles will be carried out. The 'demo' at MWC will be made possible thanks to Vodafone's 5G connectivity.

In addition to the demonstration area, the stand of the Catalan Government at the congress has an exhibitor area where 56 companies, organizations and technology centers are participating in the MWC with the support of the Government.