In some ways, Spain moves at a slower pace than the rest of Europe. Spaniards tend to get up later, eat later and go to bed later than the rest of the continent, but when it comes to mobile, Spain is the fastest place in the world.
A recent ranking by OpenSignal found that Spain has the fastest LTE networks in the world, averaging 18 megabits per second – well above the U.S. average of 7 Mbps. Spain also has the fastest individual wireless network owned by Vodafone ES with the top speed of 25.2 Mbps.
The Spanish mobile market overall is moving fast. According to the country’s telecom regulator CNMC, there were 50.6 million mobile lines at the end of 2014, with a penetration rate of 108.8%. Madrid-based Telefónica’s Movistar dominates its home market with a 31.73% share, but Orange and Vodafone are battling it out for No. 2 with 22.81% and 22.58% of the market, respectively. Yoigo, which is majority owned by Sweden’s TeliaSonera, comes in at No. 4 with 6.72% market share, with the remaining split among mobile virtual network operator players.
When just looking at LTE-based speeds, all three top players in Spain are neck-in-neck. Vodafone was the first to launch LTE in the country in May 2013, and now boasts the fastest speeds, but Orange has the most LTE subscribers with 2.3 million. Vodafone, however, is close behind with more than 2.2 million LTE subscribers, according to the companies’ respective 2014 financial reports. Mobile market leader Telefónica comes in No. 3 with 1.8 million LTE customers.
LTE-Advanced is the next frontier and all three are right on top of that as well with launches by Telefónica and Vodafone in October. At the recent Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Orange demonstrated LTE-A technology with peak rates of 400 Mbps. The service is already available in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, and is expected to reach a total of 10 Spanish cities this year.
Beyond the speed race
Telefónica is bringing LTE directly to its business clients with its “LTE in a Box,” a project it developed in partnership with Cisco. The “box” allows corporations to have coverage, performance and control beyond the capabilities of public LTE. Significantly, the solution also enables companies to better implement machine-to-machine technologies and take advantage of the possibilities of the Internet of everything.
“This Innovation Initiative is the latest in a number of steps that we are taking to ensure our position as the most advanced communications company in Spain,” said Manuel Fernández Daza, director of innovation and network services at Telefónica Spain.
What Telefonica knows is it’s not just the speed, but what you can do with it – and the telco is more than ready to offer companies its M2M solutions. The carrier launched its Smart M2M solution at the beginning of 2013, and now more than 500 enterprises are said to be using its platform. Analyst firms Gartner and Machina Research both consider Telefónica to be a market leader in this field.
In Spain, examples of Telefónica’s M2M solutions include fleet management systems for the transport company Comotrans and the seafood delivery company Ansomar. For the clothing store C&A, Telefónica used M2M to create “smart” buildings in Spain. According to the telco’s case study, an end-to-end hardware system was installed that included sensors deployed around C&A stores and in the company’s logistics center. The sensors measure energy demand and consumption in different areas, allowing real-time monitoring for lighting, heating and cooling systems. As a result, C&A reduced its energy consumption by an average of 20% in its Spanish stores and 35% at the logistics center. The cost savings was substantial: $54,000 a month in the logistics center alone.
Telefónica is also looking to deploy M2M technologies to create smarter cities, doing such things as creating “smart” public buildings, managing traffic and improving garbage pickup systems. Next week RCR Wireless News will take a closer look at one smart city project: “Barcelona for you” a real-time interactive mobile travel platform, which Telefónica created in partnership with SAP. Stay tuned.
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