Vodafone Spain to launch 5G FWA technology by end-November

Vodafone said its new 5G FWA offering will enable customers to have access speeds of up to 1 Gbps

Spanish telco Vodafone announced it will launch 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services for homes and businesses by the end of November.

The European carrier said that its new 5G FWA offering will enable customers to access speeds of up to 1 Gbps.

“Some of the advantages of this solution, which was presented at the Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2022, are the speed and ease of self-installation, since customers only have to follow a few simple steps to start using the service,” Vodafone said in a release.

Initially, Vodafone’s 5G FWA technology will be available in areas of Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Malaga, Bilbao and A Coruna and their metropolitan areas. The telco said that its 5G FWA deployment will continue to be progressively expanded to another 65 cities in the future.

Vodafone also noted that its 5G network will be available in 1,000 municipalities across Spain by the end of the year, reaching 46% of the population.

Vodafone initially launched 5G services in Spain via NSA architecture in 2019 while the telco launched a pre-commercial 5G SA network in June 2021.

In January of 2022, Vodafone Spain announced the start of the initial deployment of 5G coverage via the 700 MHz frequency in 109 municipalities in 30 provinces across the country, after the telco secured 2×10 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band in July 2021.

Vodafone has said that the 5G network in the 700 MHz frequency allows the telco to expand its coverage footprint extensively and offer better coverage inside buildings.

Vodafone said it will continue to boost coverage using the 700 MHz frequencies until reaching 30% of municipalities with up to 50,000 inhabitants in December 2022.

Spanish operators have already launched 5G services through spectrum in the 3.5 GHz, which was awarded in 2018.

In July 2021, the Spanish government raised a total of 1.1 billion euros in the 700 MHz spectrum auction, with local operators Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange securing these key frequencies to expand 5G services.

Earlier this month, the Spanish government announced details of a spectrum auction to be held in December, through which it expects to award local carriers with additional 5G spectrum.

In a release, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, through the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, has published the final bidding conditions for the 26 GHz band.

The government noted that this upcoming spectrum auction completes the process of making all the preferred bands available to telecommunications operators to deploy 5G networks and services.

The government aims to award a total of 12 national concessions in the 25.10-27.50 GHz band, and 38 regional concessions in the 24.70-25.10 GHz band.

The government noted that those operators interested in participating in the auction can submit their applications until December 7, 2022. Afterwards, a period of evaluation of the applications will begin. The government said that the bidding process is expected to start around December 22.