Movistar ended the first quarter of 2023 with 1,982 5G base stations operating in the 3.5 GHz spectrum band
Spanish operator Movistar, owned by local telecom group Telefonica, has been accelerating the deployment of 5G base stations in the 3.5 GHz band during the first quarter of the year, local press reported, citing official statistics.
According to the report, Movistar ended the first quarter of 2023 with 1,982 5G base stations operating in this spectrum band, followed by Orange (1,516), Vodafone (1,023) and MasMovil (131).
The report also noted that Movistar deployed a total of 1,295 base stations in this specific band during the first quarter of the year. During the same period, Orange installed 354 base stations.
Orange led in terms of 5G base stations in the 3.5 GHz band as of the end of last year with 1,162, followed by Movistar, with 687.
In 2018, Movistar secured 100 megahertz of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band. Orange secured 110 megahertz, while Vodafone and MásMóvil secured 90 megahertz and 80 megahertz respectively.
Earlier this year, Telefonica said its 5G network currently covers 83% of the Spanish population and provides coverage in 1,719 towns and cities across Spain. The telco also noted that nearly 1,700 towns and cities in Spain are covered by its 700 MHz 5G service, which had been activated in February of this year.
In July 2021, Telefónica officially announced its decision to award the contracts to deploy its 5G standalone radio networks across Spain to Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia.
The Spanish government aims for 75% of the population to have 5G coverage by 2025 through the bands that have been identified as priorities: 694-790 MHz, 3.4-3.8 GHz and 24.25-27.5 GHz.
Spain ended the first half of 2022 with a 5G coverage of 58.12%, according to a recent report by the country’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. This figure compares with a coverage of 33.51% at the end of the first half of 2021.
The report noted that this 5G coverage was reached by Spanish mobile operators using spectrum in the 3.5 GHz and 700 MHz bands.
However, taking into account Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technology, 5G coverage across Spain increased to 82.36% as of June 2022, according to the report, up 23 percentage points compared to the previous year.