The Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has released the 2022 Broadband Coverage Report data, which shows the progress made in fixed and mobile connectivity in Spain as of June 30, 2022.
According to the report, the connectivity gap between urban and rural areas continues to decrease considerably thanks to public support for the deployment of ultra-fast fixed network infrastructures, especially in rural areas. Since 2018, the gap has reduced from 42 percentage points to only 18 in 2022.
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100 Mbps Connectivity
As of June 2022, 90% of homes in Spain had access to networks of at least 100 Mbps, while the percentage was 72% for rural areas. In addition, the government has granted 900 million euros in public aid since 2018, which has mobilized 1,508 million in public-private investment to cover 4.7 million homes with ultra-fast broadband networks.
5G in Spain
With 4G coverage rates reaching almost 100% of the population, investments in mobile technology have remained focused on 5G. As a result, 82.36 percent of the population had access to 5G Services through different technological solutions, including New Radio (5G NR) and DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) as of June 2022. This represents a significant increase of 23 percentage points compared to the previous year.
5G Coverage with end-to-end technology using priority bands (New Radio) 3.5 GHz and 700 MHz band has reached 58.12% in 2022, 25 percent more than in 2021. 5G Coverage through a combination of other bands (DSS) reaches 73.82%
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Coverage in Rural Areas
In rural areas, 5G coverage has also doubled in a year, going from 25.26% in 2021 to 50.42% in 2022. The Digital Spain agenda aims to achieve 5G mobile network coverage of 75% of the population by 2025.
4G Coverage in Spain
4G Coverage in Spain almost covers 100 percent of the population, both in urban with 99.89 percent and rural with 99.53 percent areas. The report also said that the future challenges of mobile network coverage are focused on accelerating the deployment of 5G in both urban and rural areas and improving the capacity of their transmission networks (backhaul).
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Gigabit Society
The report also includes data on coverage at a speed of at least 1 Gigabit per hour of download for the first time, in line with the objectives established in the EU to move towards the European Gigabit Society and its universalization in 2030. In the national group, 85% of Spanish homes had access to broadband networks at a download rate of 1 Gigabit in June 2022, while the rate was 64% for rural areas.
Overall, the report suggests that the Spanish government has made significant progress in reducing the digital divide between urban and rural areas and aims to ensure an ultra-fast broadband connection throughout the national territory, covering 100% of the population by 2025.
