Telefonica is preparing to increase the maximum speed of its Spanish fibre service to 1 Gbps in January in exchange for a slight price hike, reports ADSL Zone. The latest move in the company’s “more for more” strategy will see the speed of all Movistar Fusion-branded fibre modalities increase from the current maximum of 600 Mbps to 1 Gbps from 12 January 2021, while those on 100 Mbps plans will have their speed tripled to 300 Mbps. The two new speeds of 1 Gbps and 300 Mbps will therefore replace the currently offer of 600 Mbps and 100 Mbps.

In exchange, the company will raise the price of Fusion 0 plans by EUR 2 a month, while all other Fusion fibre plans will cost EUR 3 a month more, said the report. Spanish communications regulator CNMC has approved the speed increase to 1 Gbps, which is already provided by the operator’s main rivals Orange, Vodafone and Yoigo, although Telefonica’s second brand O2 will continue to offer a maximum of 600 Mbps, added the report. 

Telefonica had a total of 7.0 million fibre accesses (retail plus wholesale) at the end of the third quarter, with fibre now accounting for 76 percent of the broadband retail base and 67 percent of the wholesale base. The company’s fibre footprint in Spain reached 24.4 million premises passed (the biggest FTTH network in Europe) at the end of the third quarter, with the fibre uptake rate rising 1 percentage point year on year to 29 percent.