Spanish telco Telefónica, which operates under the Movistar brand, has already reached over 1,000 municipalities in Spain with high-performance 5G in the 3.5 GHz band, the telco said in a release.
The carrier said this spectrum enables it to offer 5G technology in practically the entire Spanish territory, both in rural and urban areas.
“The performance of the 3.5 GHz band, offered to Movistar and O2 customers as ‘5G+’, offers high speeds and very low latency, which optimizes the mobile experience, as well as increasing network quality. This means a better mobile experience for the customer with high-quality images, almost instant downloads and streaming,” the company said.
“In the enterprise field, this band facilitates the availability of new functionalities such as network slicing to offer the best network quality in the face of certain specific needs. Telefónica has already made all these advantages available to 1,016 Spanish locations,” the telco added.
In addition, the operator is also offering 5G services via the 700 MHz band, which already reaches 3,008 municipalities and allows for improved indoor service. Taking into account the two spectrum bands, Telefónica offers 5G coverage to more than 89% of the Spanish population.
“Telefónica continues to make progress in the deployment of 5G Standalone (SA), a technology in which the entire network infrastructure is supported by 5G and which already reaches a total of 50 cities, including towns in all the Autonomous Communities. In this way, Telefónica arrives with 5G SA mainly to cities with more than 250,000 inhabitants in all the Autonomous Communities with plans to rapidly expand to other towns across Spain,” the carrier said.
In July 2023, Movistar had initially launched 5G SA technology in a total of 11 cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Seville, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Ávila, Segovia, Castellón, El Ferrol and Vigo.
Movistar’s 5G SA network, whose core was provided by Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia, guarantees browsing speeds of up to 1,600 Mbps, the telco previously said.