5G network access reaches 82% of the population, doubling in rural areas

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has published the data of the Broadband Coverage Report 2022, which provides information on progress in fixed and mobile connectivity in Spain as of 30 June 2022.

The study figures show that the connectivity gap between urban and rural areas is continuing to narrow considerably thanks to public support for the deployment of ultra-fast fixed network infrastructure, especially in rural areas.

In recent years, the gap (the difference between rural and total coverage) has more than halved from 42 percentage points in 2018 to just 18 percentage points in 2022, bringing closer the goal of closing the digital divide completely by 2025.

By June 2022, 90% of households had access to networks of at least 100 Mbps. In rural areas, the percentage was 72%.

Since 2018, the government has granted €900 million in public aid, which has mobilised €1.51 billion in public-private investment to cover 4.7 million homes with ultrafast broadband networks.

Fibre deployment has accelerated significantly in the last two years thanks to the impetus of the NextGenerationEU funds and the Recovery Plan. Between 2021 and 2022, the government granted 494 million euros in subsidies to operators for the deployment of ultrafast broadband networks of at least 100 Mbps.

Thanks to these investments, it is expected to be able to guarantee ultrafast broadband connection throughout the national territory, covering 100% of the population by 2025.

Mobile networks: 5G takes off

With 4G coverage rates reaching almost 100% of the population, investments in mobile technology have continued to focus on 5G, with a significant increase in coverage observed. A total of 82% of the population had access to 5G through different technological solutions, 23 percentage points more than a year earlier, according to data provided by the operators.

In the last year, the 5G push has been felt in the priority bands (New Radio), with coverage standing at 58%, 25 percentage points higher than in 2021. In rural areas, coverage doubled in one year to 50.52% by 2022. Among the objectives of the Digital Spain agenda, notable is the goal of reaching 75% of the population covered by 5G mobile networks by 2025.

The deployment of this technology was further accelerated in 2022 with the reorganisation of the 3.5 GHz band, which allows spectrum right holders to have contiguous blocks, and with the start of deployments in the 700 MHz band, including compliance with certain coverage obligations in the coming years.

New indicators: 1 Gbps connections

In line with the EU's stated goals of moving towards the European Gigabit Society and its universalisation by 2030, for the first time this edition of the report incorporates data on coverage at speeds of at least 1 Gigabit per download hour (downstream).

Nationally, 85% of Spanish households had access to broadband networks at a download speed of 1 Gigabit by June 2022. In rural areas, the rate was 64%.

Methodology

The last novelty was introduction in the previous edition and consisted in a methodology that took the cadastral plot (streets and entrances to houses) as a reference rather than the singular population entity, given the high levels of coverage achieved and the need to have data with greater granularity. This change allows for a more precise identification of the areas that do not have broadband network coverage and therefore may be eligible for broadband deployment support.

The methodology employed since the 2021 report uses geo-referenced data, a recommendation from the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

To implement the report, the cadastral data of January 2022 was taken as a source of information, and not the INE estimates as has been done until now. This has favoured a more accurate approximation of the housing stock in Spain, which exceeds 26 million dwellings.

Non official translation