Telefonica currently offers 5G coverage to over 80% of the Spanish population
German telecommunications infrastructure provider Vantage Towers has signed an agreement with Spanish operator Telefonica to upgrade its 5G infrastructure in the country, the former said in its earnings statement.
Vantage Towers said that the deal involves 5G equipment upgrades at more than 1,500 existing sites over the next three years.
“Vantage Towers will modify the infrastructure to host 5G equipment where Telefonica already uses previous technologies,” the company said.
Telefonica provides 5G services across Spain through its Movistar brand.
Vantage Towers currently has over 8,700 towers in Spain, where it has existing deals with local operators Vodafone Spain and MasMovil.
The company’s portfolio includes towers, masts, rooftop sites, distributed antenna systems and small cells. Vantage Towers has operations in Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Romania and Spain.
In February, Telefonica announced the activation of 5G services using spectrum in the 700MHz band. The telco said it expects to reach 1,400 localities in Spain with this service by the end of this year. In an initial phase, the new service will be offered in 700 towns and cities across the country with the goal of reaching 2,400 localities by the end of 2023.
Telefónica currently offers 5G coverage to over 80% of the Spanish population, via 5G offered through 3.5Gz spectrum. During the first half of 2021, the deployment of 5G has focused on completing coverage in the cities deployed last year and reaching cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants.
All the provincial capitals and autonomous cities, 100% of the cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and 98% of those with more than 20,000 inhabitants, as well as small towns in all the autonomous communities already have 5G, the Spanish telco said.
In July 2021, Telefónica officially announced its decision to award the contracts to deploy its 5G standalone radio networks across Spain to Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia.
The deployment of Nokia and Ericsson 5G SA networks, which is expected to occur this year, will be carried out on the 3.5 GHz and 700 MHz bands, Telefónica said.
Telefónica’s 5G network currently combines the deployment of 5G NSA and DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing).
