Alternative operators now account for the overwhelming majority of new FTTH accesses in Spain.
According to the regulator CNMC, they captured 84% of NGA active accesses (fibre and cable) in 2021, gaining most prominently in towns with less than 10,000 inhabitants (over 7pp), while in the country’s two largest cities Madrid and Barcelona they registered increases of 2.6pp and 1.4pp respectively.
CNMC notes that in the municipalities of Madrid and Barcelona, FTTH accesses represented 88.8% and 89.1% of the total active broadband accesses in these municipalities. In municipalities with a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants, the percentage of active FTTH accesses increased by more than 15 percentage points in the last year.
The highest FTTH access penetrations were observed in Barcelona and Madrid, with 39.7 and 37.3 accesses per 100 inhabitants, respectively. In addition to these cities, there was also a notable increase in the penetration of FTTH accesses in smaller municipalities. Specifically, in those with an average population of more than 50,000 inhabitants, the penetration of FTTH accesses exceeded 28.9 FTTH lines per 100 inhabitants, above the national average.
