90% of homes in Spain have an ultra-fast fixed connection

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has published the Broadband Coverage Report in Spain 2021 that reveals the advances in connectivity until June 30, 2021.

The figures of the study indicate that the deployment of ultra-fast fixed network infrastructures continues to spread throughout the national territory where almost 90% of homes had this connection. 88.3% of the national territory had coverage of at least 100 Mbps – with FTTH, HFC or coaxial cable networks – at the end of June last year. In rural areas, 70% of homes had ultra-fast coverage in June 2021.

Since 2018, the Government has invested 655 million euros in aid that has mobilized 1.12 billion private investment, which has provided ultra-fast broadband coverage to 4 million homes.

Digital divide narrows

In the area of high-capacity networks, the digital divide continues to shrink (by 5.4 percentage points in the last year), despite the effects produced by the pandemic. The gap (the difference between coverage in rural and total areas) has halved in the last four years, from 42 percentage points to only 20.

These data confirm the effects of the additional impulse that accelerated the aid from 2018, to boost the deployment of broadband in Spain with special attention to rural areas. The projection made in the report indicates that this gap will fall below 10 percentage points by 2023 and will disappear completely by the end of 2025.

The Program UNIQUE Broadband, along with the predecessor program PEBA, has promoted actions throughout the territory to narrow the digital divide, establish population in rural areas, contribute to their development and build a more cohesive society. It highlights the continued reduction of the gap that is already only 20 points, approaching the fulfillment of the objective established in the Digital Spain Agenda: 100% of the population with coverage 100 Mbps in any part of the territory.

At present, the gap has been closed almost completely in broadband coverage of 30 Mbps. The figures in the report already indicate that 96.2% of homes had connectivity of 30 Mbpsin Spain. In rural areas, it was 91.2 per cent (see annex).

Mobile networks

The annual report also highlights data on 4G mobile coverage, which reaches almost 100% of the population in both urban areas (99.91%) and rural areas (99.6%), although some areas of shade persist in parts of the territory.

Most of the investments in mobile broadband were concentrated in the deployment of 5G infrastructures, whose penetration rate has multiplied by five in the last year to reach 59% of the population through different technological solutions. 5G coverage through priority bands (New Radio) stood at 33.53% in June 2021.

According to the Digital Spain Agenda, the goal is to achieve coverage in 5G mobile networks of 75% of the population by 2025. The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan foresees investments of 1.5 billion euros to boost this disruptive technology.

New methodology: more accurate data

In the elaboration of the ‘Broadband Coverage Report in Spain 2021’ has been used for the first time a methodology that takes as reference the cadastral plot (streets and portals) instead of the singular entity of population, given the high levels of coverage achieved and the need to have data with greater granularity. In this way, a more precise identification of those areas that do not have broadband network coverage and therefore may be able to receive support for their deployment is achieved.

This methodology that uses georeferenced data is also a recommendation of the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications – ORECE- (BEREC).

Also, for the first time, the data of the August 2020 cadastre has been taken as a source of information and not the estimates of the INE as it has been carried out until now. This has favored a more accurate approach to housing in Spain.

This change has led to more dwellings (around 225,000 nationwide) being loosened than originally estimated and which served as a reference for the calculation of ratios in previous reports.

Access the full report here.​