2017 Spain - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Spain’s government launches consultation on 5G technologies and services

Spain’s telecom market in recent years has fallen steadily, with the sector affected by the poor economic climate exacerbated by high unemployment and reduced disposable income among consumers. However, a five-year recession, with falling GDP, effectively ended in 2014 when the economy showed a steady return to growth and this has been sustained since then: growing confidence among investors has been palpable since 2015, while economic growth is expected to be 3.1% for 2017. The improved business climate should augur well for the sector into 2018.

Mobile penetration is high and growing steadily if slowly, while broadband uptake is backed by continuing investment in infrastructure among operators in a bid to provide improved bundled services and so compete more effectively against other players. The regulator has fostered competition by providing access to the incumbent’s DSL and FttP networks, which has stimulated fibre roll-outs.

Spain has one of the largest mobile markets in Europe, with effective competition from four MNOs and a growing number of resellers and MVNOs. This competition, together with regulated roaming and mobile termination rates, has driven down the cost of mobile calls. The market has seen considerable changes in recent years, including the acquisition of Yoigo by Másmóvil, by which the latter has become a full service provider. There have also been growing investments in network upgrades to support LTE and HSPA+ technologies, while MNOs and vendors are also investing in 5G technologies and services.

Orange Spain and Vodafone Spain have acquired fixed-line operators in a bid to compete more effectively with Movistar in their bundled service offerings.

In recent quarters Spain’s broadband market has shifted from copper to fibre infrastructure. By mid-2017 the number of fibre broadband subscribers outnumbered those on DSL for the first time. Broadband penetration remains on a par with the EU average, though growth into 2018 is expected to be stimulated by regulatory measures introduced in 2017 which obliged Telefónica to reduce wholesale access prices on some submarine cables by up to 35%.

Telefónica continues to invest heavily in fibre infrastructure while its recent access deal with Vodafone Spain has significantly increased the latter’s footprint. Vodafone now offers a 1Gb/s service across much of its network, while in the cable sector the company has also invested in DOSCIS3.1 technology.

This report introduces the key aspects of the Spanish telecom market, providing statistics on the fixed-network services sector, and profiles of the main players. The report also assesses the main regulatory issues, noting the status of interconnection, local loop unbundling, number portability and carrier preselection. In addition the report assesses the mobile sector, including a review of regulatory issues, analyses of the major providers and details of progress in the build-out of technologies including M2M, LTE and 5G. The report also covers Spain’s fixed and wireless broadband markets, together with developments in related technologies such as fibre, and broadband powerline.

Key developments:

• EllaLink submarine cable connecting Spain with Brazil gets the go-ahead;
• Telefónica sells stake in Telxius network unit;
• Orange Spain teams up with Ericsson to trial 5G;
• Vodafone Spain launches Spain’s first NB-IoT network;
• Orange Spain investing up to €1.5 billion to provide 95% population coverage with LTE by end-2017;
• Government launches consultation on 5G technologies and services;
• Mobile revenue continues to fall in line with a decline in the number of subscribers;
• Vodafone Spain contracts Huawei to upgrade its HFC network with DOCSIS3.1, launches a 1Gb/s broadband service to four million premises;
• Euskaltel completes acquisition of Telecable;
• Fibre broadband accounting for 41% of all fixed-line broadband connections;
• Report update includes the regulator’s market data updates to August 2017, telcos’ operating and financial data to Q2 2017, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Orange Spain, Telefónica (Movistar), Jazztel, Ono, Vodafone Spain, Lebara, Lycamobile, Másmóvil, YouMobile.