Orange had initially launched its 5G SA network in Spain last month
Spanish operator Orange Spain expects to reach 11 cities with 5G Standalone (SA) by the end of the year, news service DPL News reported, citing the carrier’s Director of Network Strategy Miguel Angel Almonacid.
The executive reportedly noted that the telco’s 5G deployment is currently using the 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum bands. However, he highlighted that the carrier will use its spectrum in the 26 GHz band depending on future business needs.
Orange Spain launched its 5G SA network in February, initially covering parts of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville.
Almonacid also said that the 5G SA network will cover 90% of those cities by 2023. “We will gradually grow as customers accept it, because you also have to have adequate terminals,” the executive added.
Ericsson, Nokia and Oracle Communications were the main providers of this 5G SA network, Orange hyas previously said.
The Spanish operator explained that 5G SA allows better 5G coverage indoors, thanks to the use of native 5G bands; low latency, which will benefit services for which this requirement may be very relevant such as online gaming and live video streaming as well as a greater number of connected devices and greater security.
Orange has already deployed its 5G services in 1,844 towns and cities in 52 provinces cross Spain.
According to the European carrier, its 5G network infrastructure reached 78.4% of the Spanish population as of the end of the last quarter of 2022.
The telco ended December with a total of 1.68 million subscribers in the 5G segment, after a net addition of over 800,000 over the last 12 months.
Orange Spain is currently offering 5G services through frequencies in the 3.5 GHz and 700 MHz bands.
Last year, when Orange announced its deployment of 5G in the 700 MHz band, it said it would offer this technology progressively over the course of 2022 in more than 1,100 towns and cities, 820 of them having between 1,000 and 50,000 citizens.
In the last spectrum auction, Orange secured 2×10 megahertz in the 700 MHz band, which adds to the 110 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band already owned by Orange. The company invested a total of 523 million euros ($552 million) in the acquisition of these frequencies. Earlier this year, the telco also secured spectrum in the 26GHz band.
The operator launched commercial 5G services in Spain in September of 2020, using NonStandalone (NSA) architecture.
In 2022, Orange and Masmovil had signed a binding agreement to combine their operations in Spain.
The transaction is subject to approval from antitrust and other regulatory review and is expected to close during the second half of 2023. The file has already been registered with the European Commission.
Under the terms of the deal, the 50-50 joint venture stipulates that both operators will have equal governance rights in the combined entity. The agreement also includes a right to trigger an IPO under certain conditions for both parties after a defined period and, in such a scenario, an option for Orange to take control of the combined entity.
