in Barcelona
3 to 5 Nov 2026The regional government of Andalusia is extending smart-city technology to its countryside, rolling out connected infrastructure across 311 rural municipalities of fewer than 20,000 inhabitants in the provinces of Granada, Jaén and Sevilla. Delivered through the regional CITI incentive programme for smart cities and territories and coordinated by the public telecoms agency Sandetel, the €9.25 million initiative is expected to reach 1.3 million residents.
As of June 2026, three of the programme’s 21 projects have been completed and the remaining 18 are in execution, according to the regional Ministry of University, Research and Innovation. The effort reframes the “smart village” idea as a practical route to bring data-driven services to towns too small to fund the technology on their own.
A Co-Financed €9.25 Million Model
The programme is built on co-financing so small councils are not left to shoulder the cost alone. Of the €9.25 million total, €7.1 million, or 77 percent, comes from the regional government through Andalucía FEDER 2021-2027 European funds, delivered as in-kind aid.
Local authorities contribute the remaining €2.15 million, 23 percent, directly. That structure is the mechanism that makes advanced technology viable for municipalities that could not procure it individually.
Three Completed Projects as a Showcase
Three finished projects illustrate the model. In Sevilla, the Smart Movilidad Gran Vega project groups 12 municipalities, including Alcalá del Río, La Algaba and Brenes, around smart traffic cameras, parking-occupancy management, e-scooter docking stations and connected air-quality sensors feeding a mobility app, serving close to 120,000 residents.
In Jaén, a connectivity project led by Villacarrillo, alongside Iznatoraf, Sorihuela del Guadalimar and Villanueva del Arzobispo, deployed municipal fibre-optic and wireless networks. In Granada, the provincial council completed an overhaul of its cloud infrastructure under the “Granada Provincia Territorio Inteligente” strategy.
Six Domains, From Mobility to Water Networks
The funded actions span six areas: mobility, governance, economy, wellbeing, environment and platform. In practice that ranges from energy-efficiency systems in public buildings and intelligent control of water networks to digital platforms supporting local commerce and tourism.
Deployment Still Ramping Up
The wider plan envisages more than 9,500 electronic devices, sensors and cameras. Of those, 692 are already fully operational and sending data in real time, an early-stage figure that underlines how much of the rollout still lies ahead.
A Bridge to Plan ARI 2030
CITI is positioned as the precursor to a longer-term strategy. To consolidate the ecosystem and continue the AndalucíaSmart initiative, the regional government is designing the Plan Andalucía Región Inteligente 2026-2030, known as Plan ARI 2030.
The framework aims to turn isolated local pilots into replicable, scalable and data-based solutions for public services across the region over the coming decade. Andalusia has pursued parallel smart investments elsewhere, including a €20 million programme at Seville’s TechPark.
