The telecommunications law will put a stop to the visual impact of cables on facades

The protests for the indiscriminate cable storage on the facades of houses or hanging from the air, in the historic centers of cities or in the most beautiful villages in Spain, have been increasing in recent years and the Government and Congress have taken note. The new telecommunications law, whose approval in the Chamber is scheduled for the end of the month, includes an article aimed at tackling these very fat knots of cables and their dense channeling. Despite this, the parliamentary groups have agreed on an amendment to reinforce the purpose. Parliamentary sources present in the negotiation of the final touches of the norm inform that the final wording of the mentioned article, 49.8, will incorporate ten words that are essential to precipitate the death of the tangles of cables on the exterior walls of the buildings or that They cross from side to side of the streets of the historic centers of cities such as Córdoba or Granada, to give two examples, although there are many more. Those ten words are: “(…) having to adopt the opportune measures to minimize visual impact“.

Dozens of telephone and fiber cables throughout the buildings of #Hospitalet #Barcelona. Many of them are loose, even many of the devices where they are connected are hanging without further support. Mayoress @nuriamarinlhhow can you allow this? https://t.co/97WCb6gDzR

– Antonio Pérez (@ToniPress) May 24, 2021

Also, in the following paragraph, the majority has chosen to highlight the need to protect artistic and cultural heritage from the attacks of these aerial hordes of fiber cables. To harmonize the coat of arms throughout Spain, the legislators have extended the armor to the complexes that have the category of “good of cultural interest declared by the competent administrations”. The shielding of such architectural-artistic-cultural ensembles was already a UNESCO request.

The telecommunications bill landed in Congress in November of last year. It stayed in the fridge for a while because the groups, even at that time, had an exhausting workload. In addition, the general budgets of the State were being processed, which in the General Courts usually paralyzes the rest of the legislative activity.

However, unlike the rules that week after week become a vague memory, since 20 and even 30 extensions of the term of amendments are accumulated, the telecommunications law reached cruising speed right away. She suffered only three weekly postponements. It is a project that should be attended to carefully because the commercial objectives of companies called Telefónica, Orange or Vodafone depend on how the final wording turns out. Almost nothing.

As soon as they receive notification of the qualification of a new project, the groups have an intuition as soon as possible, which norms will be preferred and which will not. There are surprises, of course. But with the telecommunications company, they concluded that they would have to work and decide quickly. The Government conveyed that there would be no delays in the law and those responsible for the political formations present in Congress prepared themselves with the amendments, which they asked to leave written quickly. On December 29, 2021, the Board announced the start of the process and the groups registered their modification proposals a few days later, as reflected in the Official Gazette of the Courts.

It was not easy because the telecommunications law is a very technical and gigantic law, of more than 100 itemsmore than 20 additional provisions, almost a dozen final provisions and a series of annexes, in case all the previous regulatory framework had known little.

The Committee on Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation got down to work and created the paper. 15 deputies were in charge of studying in detail the vast text and the more than 200 amendments presented. Yes, 200. The parliamentary sources consulted say that this previous titanic task It has served so that the sessions of the presentation have gone like a rocket. Not only has the parliamentary dialogue worked, but also the exchange of views with representatives of the imposing telecommunications companies. There are lobbies on the outskirts of Congress, without a doubt. It is not illegal. It is generally productive.

If nothing goes wrong, on the 26th the Commission will meet to debate the opinion of the rapporteurs and the amendments that remain, and, right after, vote on everything. The report will end up in plenary, and if it gets the go-ahead, what could happen on april 28according to the calculations made, will go to the Senate for the final phase.

The sources point out that the law has not motivated angry political fights or tensions between groups, beyond the negotiation of the transactional ones (the texts that are offered as bases for eventual pacts). Concord has prevailed, beyond the susceptibilities that the nationalist and independentist formations expressed about invasions of competence. In fact, no source fears for the future of the law. They assure more or less vehemently that it will be approved.

Among the many key aspects, highlight two. One has not transcended excessively. The other, something else. The first resides in article 49.8, which obliges operators to “do use of underground pipes” or “inside buildings” for “the installation and operation of public electronic communications networks”.

As on many occasions burial is unfeasible, the law provides what to do, even if the reasons that prevent the procedure are “technical or economic”. Leave the door open in that case to “do air deployments following the previously existing ones”. Now, here is the novelty introduced during the parliamentary negotiation: the groups have agreed that such deployment be done “on an exceptional basis” and respecting the protection categories of the “historical-artistic heritage” buildings that have been promulgated by the competent administrations.

By the time the operation advises the expansion and branching of the fiber cabling through the facade, the companies will have to take into account that they will be able to use “previously installed deployments, channels, installations and equipment”, but then it will be mandatory “to adopt the appropriate measures to minimize visual impact.

The reinforcement to make these skeins of fiber cables invisible, essential for the Internet to go faster and with more capacity in our homes, has been the result of a negotiation between various groups to accept the proposals for CS and CKD. Liberals initially advocated give preference for air deployments to follow the existing ones. The independentists were more ambitious and limited any laying or deployment to the heritage, artistic and urban criteria.

The other aspect that, however, has not materialized, according to the version of the sources, is the one that tried to revive the telephone booths in the public space, which are already abandoned and that the city councils, in some cases, are removing from the streets. The project, as sent by the Government, established his disappearance, his death. “The cessation of the provision of the universal service element related to the provision of a sufficient supply of public pay telephones is determined,” he said. The PSOE, however, proposed removing this additional provision, number 24, because the deadline for the removal of the historic booths expired on December 31, 2021.

Cs considered giving them a second life, and thus, requested by means of an amendment the “reconversion of public pay telephone infrastructures into public service connectivity points”. It even set the services to be provided, from internet connection to package collection. The Resurrection of the cabins, however, it will not act as it has not provoked the mandatory consensus.