Spanish telecom operator Masmovil is already offering its 5G service in over 435 towns and cities in 39 provinces across Spain for the customers of its Yoigo brand, the carrier said in a release.
The operator said that its 5G service currently reaches nearly 44% of the Spanish population.
The telco’s 5G service is being offered via a combination of its own infrastructure and an agreement with rival operator Orange. Masmovil currently has 80 megahertz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band for the provision of 5G services in Spain.
Some of the cities in which the carrier provides 5G include Álava; Alicante; Almería; Asturias; Ávila; Badajoz; Baleares, Barcelona, Cáceres, Cádiz, Cantabria, Ceuta, Córdoba, Coruña, Granada, Guipúzcoa, Huelva, Huesca, Jaén, Las Palmas, La Rioja, León, Lugo, Madrid, Málaga, Melilla, Murcia, Navarra, Orense, Palencia, Pontevedra, Salamanca, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Sevilla, Vizcaya, Valencia, Valladolid, Zamora and Zaragoza.
Masmovil also said it aims to continue deploying 5G infrastructure in the coming months to expand its current coverage.
In October 2019, Masmovil signed an agreement with Orange Spain covering mobile, fiber and broadband technologies. The deal gives Masmovil access to Orange Spain’s entire 5G network thanks to a “virtual active sharing mode” agreement, enabling it to deploy 5G in 4,500 locations that cover 35% of the Spanish population in 40 main cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Malaga and Bilbao. Orange will deploy a total of 1,500 new sites through the end of 2021 in Spain.
The 5G deal between the two Spanish operators will be valid until 2028 and is extendable for 5 additional years.
Orange is already offering 5G services in 442 towns and cities in 48 provinces across the country. According to the European operator, its 5G network infrastructure already reaches 28% of the Spanish population.
Orange had said it expects its 5G network to reach 50% of the population by the end of this year and 90% of the population by 2022.
Orange is currently offering 5G in the country through a combination of non-standalone (NSA) 5G and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technologies. The operator launched commercial 5G services in Spain in September of 2020, using equipment provided by Swedish vendor Ericsson.
Meanwhile, Telefónica recently said it has extended the coverage of its 5G network to over 80% of the country’s population as of the end of the first quarter of 2021, having installed more than 4,300 nodes that offer coverage to more than 37 million inhabitants.
The telco said that its 5G network currently reaches 1,253 towns and cities across Spain.
The company launched its 5G service in September 2020 and had committed to deploy 5G in 921 towns and cities covering 75% of the Spanish population by the end of 2020.
Last week, the Spanish government said it had received requests from operators Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange to participate in the upcoming auction of 700MHz frequencies. In the auction, a total of 75 MHz divided into 60 MHz for upstream and downstream communications, and 15MHz for downstream only, will be tendered, distributed in seven state-wide concessions.
The Spanish government confirmed that the auction will begin before July 21, 2021.
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.
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