The mayor of Tías, José Juan Cruz, presented the project yesterday in El Fondeadero, in Puerto del Carmen. He was accompanied at the event by the mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, as well as the team of project writers.
José Juan Cruz stated that "this initiative aims to bring new technologies closer to dispersed populations and rural areas that would hardly be reached otherwise, due to the rugged terrain of the Island".
The project was commissioned to the University of Las Palmas in 2004 as a result of "a demand from the population, increasingly significant, to have access to new technologies from anywhere in the municipalities," he said.
A point where they can access the network
The strong demographic growth experienced in recent years, the dispersion of population centers, and the orography of the Island were some of the difficulties faced by institutions in meeting this demand. With this project, the mayor stated that the aim is to "offer populations that do not have broadband services a point within their own urban area where they can access the network quickly and reliably, as well as enjoy a certain mobility".
It also adds the possibility of interconnecting the municipal offices of the two town councils through the wireless network. The services that residents will be able to access with the construction of this network would be: access to the internet and Web services, email transfers between network users or between residents and the Commonwealth, citizen service services to bring the municipal administration closer, being able to offer forms for requesting certificates, suggestions, procedures, tax payments, etc.
Bringing technology closer to residents
The main motivation for the use of wireless technology, which has experienced a great boom in recent years, "has been to bring this technology closer to residents, with special emphasis on rural areas where new communication systems are certainly less likely to arrive," the mayor concluded.
Thanks to this project, various towns in Yaiza and Tías would be interconnected. Masdache, Conil, Tías, Puerto del Carmen, Mácher and La Asomada would be part of the subnetwork of the municipality of Tías. For its part, Yaiza, Femés, Las Brelas, Uga and Playa Blanca would form the interconnection structure of the municipality of Yaiza.
The structure of both networks is similar, since it consists of the union of the most important population centers of the municipality, through digital radio links. Once they have all been joined, they will have the possibility of accessing the internet through the ADSL connection contracted by the municipal offices of the town councils.
A cost of 150,000 euros
It is expected that each of the access points will offer wireless coverage in its immediate vicinity, a maximum of about 50 meters, with an acceptable signal quality. This service area will depend on the different obstacles that the signal encounters, whether they are geographical, architectural or natural.
The project has a cost of 150,000 euros, almost 25 million of the old pesetas. Now is the time to request the relevant subsidies, both from the Government of the Canary Islands and from the central Administration, to enable its installation and commissioning.