A plan in Spain should close the small coverage gap that still exists, but some changes may be needed to make more efficient use of public money
A fibre-rich country with some remaining not-spots: Spain may have some connectivity gaps to close, but it starts from a very strong position. It is one of the EU countries with the highest coverage of fixed very-high capacity networks (93.8% of households as of 2021, and 71.5% in rural areas). Its 4G coverage is also almost ubiquitous, standing at 99.9% of households. The Government is now looking to close the mobile gap, and proposes to fund passive infrastructure for the deployment of mobile networks in areas unattractive for the market. This should cover the areas identified in 2021 through a public consultation – circa 163,000 inhabitants and 13,000km of secondary roads that are not expected to get mobile coverage of at least 10Mbps in the next three years.
The Government is preparing the first call for tenders: The Government is allocating a total €150m from the European Recovery Fund. The first call for tenders will allocate €40m, and identifies four areas where funding should be prioritised. Each participant can present one project per area, and the aid will be allocated to the project with the highest scoring. The passive infrastructure built with these funds will be subject to wholesale access obligations, so that it can be used by different operators, and will have to support the provision of high-speed or very-high speed mobile communications (i.e. 30Mbps or 100Mbps, respectively). The funds can be used to adapt existing infrastructure as well as deployments from scratch.
Some potential shortcomings will need to be addressed: The Spanish regulator, the CNMC, expressed its support for the plan, but is pushing the Government to go further in some respects. Firstly, there is a risk of municipalities with 10,000 – 20,000 inhabitants being excluded. The order would only cover municipalities with up to 10,000 people, whereas the coverage obligations of the 5G spectrum licences awarded in 2021 cover municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants. Municipalities in-between may be left without 5G coverage and access to this new infrastructure. Secondly, the order should not require participants to have an agreement with at least one mobile operator, which could be a challenge in areas completely unattractive to the market. In order to avoid underutilisation, the order should also allow the deployment of fixed networks with speeds of at least 30Mbps where there is spare capacity. Finally, the Government should be open to extending the funding to active infrastructure where necessary, with specific requirements for quality of service.
