The great digital achievement of Spain has been to raise the best fiber network in Europe

This Tuesday Spain definitely closes a 140 -year -old chapter. Telefónica has announced the shutdown of its last 661 copper centralsforever burying the technology that vertebó the communications of the twentieth century. But real history is not the funeral of copper, but Spain has become a European leader in connectivity.

Why is it important. While other European countries continue to debate when to migrate from copper, Spain has already completed that transition. Telefónica is the first great operator of the continent to completely close its copper network. The rest of Europe looks at us from behind.

In figures. The numbers deny the myth of Spanish technological backwardness. Spain is The third OECD country with greater fiber optic penetration. The fiber lines represent 89.3% of the total fixed broadband. The network reaches 80 million accesses installed in a country of 49 million inhabitants. The trick: homes are included but also local, in addition to many duplicates among operators.

Only South Korea and Japan overcome us in some indicators. France, Germany or the United Kingdom are behind FTTH coverage. In FTTB, Spain leads Europe After years only behind Iceland.

The panoramic. Since 2014, Spain has dismantled 8,532 copper centrals in a huge logistics operation. Has migrated 99.99% of customers Without leaving them without service. It has recycled 65,000 tons of cable and saved 1,000 gigawatt energy, according to company sources cited by Five days.

All while building an infrastructure that covers 94% of the population. Including rural areas that place us far ahead of other European countries in rural coverage.

Between the lines. The Spanish transformation has gone unnoticed because it coincided with years of economic crisis and with the perennial complex of national technological inferiority. It is true that we are light years from the United States or China in terms of large technological ones, but we have built the best telecommunications infrastructure in Europe.

The optical fiber is 90% more energy efficient than copper and multiplies speeds. A fiber plant serves to the same number of accesses as four copper centrals occupying only 15% of the space.

The money trail. Telefónica has converted the transition into business. The sale and recycling of the retired copper has been an extra income of about 1,000 million euros, taking advantage of the revaluation of the metal.

Yes, but. Copper does not disappear completely from the Spanish map. More than two million customers are still connected by coaxial cable using HFC technology (fiber-coaxial hybrid). They are mainly of operators such as Vodafone or Euskaltel.

It is not the same copper as the ADSL that has just died, but technically it is still copper that carries the signal to the home. The difference: this coaxial coexists with the fiber in a hybrid network that offers speeds far superior to the old telephone copper pair.

Deepen. The Spanish fiber revolution is no accident. It started when the Spanish regulator liberalized the market and forced Telefónica to share its infrastructure. The competition between operators accelerated the deployment.

Now that infrastructure will be the basis for the next generations of mobile networks, the Internet of things and future technologies to develop. Spain has built a digital infrastructure prepared for the future.

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