Carrying a cell phone in your pocket is useless for almost nothing in Gilet , a town in the Sierra Calderona in the province of Valencia that has been without mobile phone coverage for four years . Its 3,000 inhabitants lost the signal when the antenna was removed due to a claim of ownership of the land on which it was located. And from that moment, everyday issues such as making a bank transfer, an online purchase or receiving an SMS message have become impossible.
It is not part of the 440 municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants of the Valencian Community that suffer the digital divide of their own accord. Of the four new tools of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) - mobile phone, computer, internet and digital television - they lack the most basic: mobile.
The shadow over Gilet affects all companies, because none of them wanted to put a solution. "We have been asked for 120,000 euros for installing the antenna," says the Socialist mayor, Salva Costa, who is not right to anticipate a date when his neighbors can be connected again.
Locating the antenna is not an easy task. Its municipal term is integrated in the Natural Park of the Sierra Calderona and any action requires the special permission of the Ministry of Environment after Seprona supervision. "The regulations are very strict and we have made all the requests, but we are still waiting," he confirms. Despite not being a municipal competition, given the concern of its citizens, the City Council included in its budgets 30,000 euros to cover the installation on public land. "We communicated it to the Environment and it gave us permission to prepare the wiring, because we had to bring electric light too, but a complaint from a group of neighbors to the Seprona forced us to withdraw everything and wait," he summarizes. Start again.
The option of counting at least during the summer months, when the population grows to 10,000 inhabitants, with a portable antenna is something they have not been able to achieve in four years . «There are many music festivals in the Mediterranean area at that time and companies turn their resources there. Although they took the entire market of our town would be 2,000 contracts, and they are not interested, ”he admits.
The problem affects the internet connection, but especially calls. And when you live in one of the five urbanizations of the town, the problem multiplies. “We had to reinstall the landline , something in disuse that is essential for us to be located. If something happens to us, it is the only way to call an ambulance or 112 ”, says Natalia Brines, neighbor of the Sant Espirit urbanization. "At home you can have a Wi-Fi connection that allows you to surf the internet or receive emails, but, for example, you cannot make a bank transfer because they send you a password by SMS to the mobile you never receive," he describes. Neither top up a bonobus, nor make purchases with a card that requires validation with a key or the declaration of income . «You have to go down to the town to see if you are lucky and catch some rallita of coverage that comes from a nearby repeater».
Before the calls, it is usual to hear the message This phone is off or out of coverage , but the thing is complicated if the person who is unreachable is the Local Police . "If they go out to patrol the urbanizations we can no longer contact them," warns the mayor.
Attracting new inhabitants to this enclave of the sierra is complicated with this technological obstacle, "because there are many people who need to be able to work from home and be located on the mobile." Also rent a house. "There are those who directly say no because they don't have coverage or because they are older people who fear having a problem and not being able to give notice," Brines admits.
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