Spain: Government’s €150m aid to extend FTTH
March 19, 2019
From David Del Valle in Madrid
The Spanish Administration has approved a €150 million in grants to extend FTTH to rural areas over the next three years.
The funds will come from the national budget (€25 million) and the European programme FEDER (€125 million) and will be awarded by the Ministry of Economy.
The main goal is that by June 2021 93.5 per cent of the population can use FTTH, whose current penetration is around 80 per cent, being the largest FTTH network in Europe.
By November last year, FTTH reached 8.4 million lines, according to the CNMC.
Movistar leads the market with 3.9 million, 46.5 per cent of the market. Year-on-Year FTTH captured 2 million versus a loss of 1.3 million in DSL.
Total broadband market reached 14.8 million with a gain of almost 57,000 in November.