Spain's €1bn FTTH rollout progresses as work starts in 12 cities
The rollout of a €1bn fibre to the home (FTTH) network has been locked in for 12 Spanish cities, laying the groundwork for planned activation later this year.
Vodafone and Orange have started work under a joint rollout in cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Málaga, Valencia, Alicante, Zaragoza, Córdoba, Valladolid, Alcorcón, Badalona, and Hospitalet de Llobregat.
The two operators announced in March they intended to reach 800,000 premises during the first year of their fibre pact with an expected budget of €200m. The pair plan to take FTTH to six million properties in 50 cities within the next four years, covering roughly 40 percent of premises in the country.
Vodafone and Orange are tackling different areas individually but will share street level fibre and facilitate access to each other's networks.
To avoid duplication, the two operators are won't pass areas where Telefonica Spain has already laid fibre networks and in July they struck a reciprocal agreement with Telefonica to share its 'vertical' fibre infrastructure in buildings. Telefonica will also have access to network infrastructure its rivals lay out in areas it doesn’t.
At present, the highest concentration of fibre in Spain are is in Madrid and Barcelona, which account for 73 percent of the country's fibre connections. Spain's FTTH penetration is around two percent, according to Europe's Fibre to the Home Council.