The SETSI will increase its budget by 51% as a result of the reinstatement of DTT

Without taking into account the line allocated to the digital dividend, the State budget for telecommunications would increase by 8.6%.

The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society (SETSI), Víctor Calvo-Sotelo, appeared this Tuesday in the Congress of Deputies to outline the State budget for ICT.

The budget allocation allocated to SETSI in 2015 will increase by 51%, reaching 1,071 million euros. This increase is mainly due to the line planned by the Executive of 280 million euros to cover the costs of restoring DTT as a result of the digital dividend.

Calvo-Sotelo has recognized that the adaptation of the antennas will affect one million buildings, with an average antennaization cost that will range from 150 to 500 euros, depending on the number of channels to be migrated. The neighborhood communities will initially face these costs, although they will later transmit the invoices to the Administration, as well as a digital bulletin of the intervention, so that the advanced cost will be returned to them starting in January, following the order in which the requests were submitted.

Except for this item, the budget that the State will allocate to telecommunications in 2015 will increase by 8.6%. Specifically, in personnel expenses the budget decreases by 2.13%, to 21.56 million, while in the chapter on current expenses in goods and services the budgets increase by 5.18%, to 811,660 euros.

On the other hand, Calvo-Sotelo highlighted that the Government has planned 100 million euros for actions related to digital connectivity within the Plan of measures for growth, competitiveness and efficiency, which will be implemented through Red.es. The Secretary of State has indicated that with the 2015 adjustments, a total of 9.7 million euros will be granted in aid in the priority areas of the strategic action of the economy and digital society, which represents 14.6% more than in 2014.