CNMC Reports Growth in Spanish FTTH Market

Fiber to the home broadband connections in Spain has shown a steady growth for the past many years and now the telecom regulator CNMC reports that the number of FTTH connections in the country grew to 1.81 million at the end of February 2015. There is a clear trend among subscribers to move towards fiber based broadband services.

Fiber to the home and Hybrid Fiber Co-axial connections continue to grow while there is a decline in the number of DSL subscribers. This indicates that more number of DSL subscribers are shifting to FTTH connection and new subscribers directly opt for fiber based broadband plans instead of choosing DSL connections. Service providers in Spain could add 127,735 FTTH connections in February to take it over the 1.8 million mark, while HFC lines grew by 23,820.

CNMC report also indicates that by the end of February 2015, Spain had 12.79 million broadband connections. There is an addition of 722,000 subscribers compared to the previous year suggesting a growth of approximately 5.64 percent.

Acquisition of Ono had helped Vodafone to contain or compensate the outward flow of subscribers from Vodafone's service schemes. Vodafone alone claims about 8.8% of the market in Spain. CNMC reports that, Vodafone was the one among fixed broadband operators in Spain to lose customers in February. Service provider Ono has reported growth in its subscriber base. Ono was acquired by Vodafone in 2014. The combined company claimed a market share of 21.9% at end of February 2015, that places them in the second place in ranking.

Telefonica is the largest service provider in terms of number of subscribers and the fiber optic networks it owns. Telefonica had a 45.2% market share in Spain. Orange with around 15.9 percent market share is the third largest service provider in Spain. Orange recorded highest growth in Spain in February 2015 with the addition of 19,000 subscribers to its service.

Orange is moving towards to acquire Jazztel. CNMC had cleared the proposal for take over. Orange had proposed a 3.4 billion euro plan to take over relatively smaller telecom service provider, Jazztel. The acquisition will make the combined company stronger to offer broadband services at competitive price in Spain. Orange and Jazztel together would have had a 27.9% share of the broadband market at the end of February. The acquisition will place them in second place replacing Vodafone-Ono team.

CNMC also reports that the Spanish mobile market as a whole has been losing customers since September 2014. The decline is reported from the prepaid market while postpaid customers continue to inch up, accounting for 36.31 million of the total 50.47 million connections at the end of February. Interestingly, many operators including Vodafone, Telefonica's Movistar, and Yoigo lost customers in February, while Orange could add fewer than 3,000 customers. Virtual operators, including Vodafone's Ono, together added almost 99,000 subscribers.

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