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Movistar, MasOrange, and Vodafone Spain will share frequencies in the 700MHz band in order to meet the requirements of government’s UNICO programme
According to a report from Expansion, Spain’s three largest mobile network operators (MNOs) have agreed to share spectrum in the 700MHz band.
The deal would give each operator access to a full 100MHz of spectrum at locations where it is the sole 5G operator, dramatically improving capacity.
The deal has yet to be officially confirmed by Movistar, MasOrange, or Vodafone Spain, with no financial details revealed so far.
Digi Communications, which has agreed to expand its operations to become the nation’s fourth MNO following the MasMovil–Orange merger, was not included in the agreement.
The motivation for this sharing deal, according to Expansion’s sources, is related to the Spanish government’s Universalization of Digital Infrastructures for Cohesion (UNICO) programme. Backed by EU funding, UNICO aims to help deliver 5G and related infrastructure, like fibre backhaul, to unserved and underserved areas across the country.
Devised as part of Spain’s post-pandemic recovery plan, UNICO has already begun allocating funds to various projects, including those related to 5G backhaul, while others, like 5G cybersecurity, are currently in the works.
With regard to this week’s spectrum sharing deal, the operators appear to be targeting UNICO’s 5G Redes Activas project, which will allocate €544 million for the deployment of 5G in towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants that are currently not covered by 4G. This project has identified 50 zones across the country, each of which will be allocated individually to a winning MNO.
By sharing spectrum in the 700MHz band, the telcos will be able to meet the requirements of the 5G Redes Activas project more quickly and cost effectively; this is partly due to the nature of low-band spectrum, which has a greater effective range than mid-band and high-band spectrum, therefore requiring less infrastructure to be deployed to cover the designated areas.
The 5G Redes Activas project was opened for bidding last year, with results expected to be announced next month.
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