Nearly half of Spanish users can access 30 Mbps broadband

Around 49 percent of Spanish users can access broadband connections of 30 Mbps and over, according to a report into Next-Generation Access (NGA) networks issued by Spain’s telecommunications regulator CNMC. Using figures updated to June 2013, the report finds that some 18.35 million NGA lines were available via HFC, FTTH or VDSL technology but that only 1.4 million users, around 8 percent of the broadband market, subscribed to one of the 30 Mbps-plus connections. Of these, 794,000 had an active VDSL connection, 438,000 connected via FTTH and 171,000 via cable. The vast majority of users, some 10.5 million in total, had a broadband connection at speeds below 30 Mbps.

In terms of geographical coverage, around 60 percent of cities with a population of over 100,000 inhabitants had NGA network coverage, with the figure in Barcelona and Madrid reaching 83.1 percent and 81.5 of the population respectively. Movistar accounted for 43.4 percent of active NGA lines in Barcelona and 48.1 percent in Madrid. In smaller towns with a population below 5,000, however, Movistar had a 71.4 percent market share.

The report also noted that the price of NGA superfast broadband had declined by “5 to 10 percent over the past year” due to intense competition, above all in the convergent (fixed plus mobile) segment. In the middle of last year, prices for a 30 Mbps connection ranged from EUR 34.90 per month from Jazztel to EUR 41.80 from Movistar.