Spain’s communications regulator CNMC said it has finally approved a proposal set out back in November 2020 to update the country’s wholesale fixed broadband rules. The main consequence of the update is the decision to significantly increase the number of cities deemed “competitive” from 66 to 696, meaning former incumbent Telefonica is no longer required to provide wholesale access to its fibre-optic network in areas representing over 70 percent of the Spanish population, up from 35 percent in 2016.
In a statement, the CNMC said the rise in the number of fibre lines from 3 million in 2015 to 12 million this year means that there are now 696 areas with at least 3 different operators with NGN deployments in which Telefonica’s share is less than 50 percent. Telefonica will no longer be subject to wholesale access obligations on its fibre network in these areas but will need to continue providing access to its civil infrastructure (conduits and poles) in all areas as well as indirect access to its copper-based network.
The company will also be required to continue providing wholesale access to its fibre service in all of Spain’s "non-competitive areas", a total of 7,453 municipalities now comprising less than 30 percent of the country’s population. The CNMC added that it will carry on closely monitoring the competitive situation of the market and will assess whether or not it needs to adopt new measures or completely withdraw the existing regulations within a maximum term of 3 years.
The most immediate result of the CNMC’s move is that Telefonica’s O2 Spain brand can now remove virtually all geographical restrictions to its plans, meaning customers all over the country can now sign up to its latest offers.
Telefonica's Spanish fibre to the home network covered 26.1 million premises at the end of June and is still the largest domestic FTTH network in Europe, valued at around EUR 15 billion.
