Fast Net News, DSL Prime, DOCSIS Report

Telefonica totally dominated Spanish broadband until a few years ago but actually lost 23K DSL customers in February. Since January 2010, alternative carriers have added 667K while Telefonica gained only 138K. The cause is no mystery; the CMT finally revised the unbundling rules to give the competitors a better deal.

    In the first four months after launching 30 meg and 50 meg DOCSIS 4.0, Ono Cable signed up 128K subscribers (bandaancha.eu.) Some were upgrades of existing customers, but Ono has net adds of 65K since last September and Telefonica only 13K. Ono, like Numericable in France and Virgin in Britain, has severe financial constraints and is limited in how effectively it can compete.

       Spain is finally getting some fiber home. 9,000 signed up in January and February, to a total of 66K. Telefonica has made some extravagant promises to fiber the country, including all of Madrid in a few years. The actual build is much slower as Telefonica has diverted investment funds to the faster growing - and more competitive - markets in Latin America. 

       Before we praise CMT, the Spanish regulator, they need to explain why they want to raise the access charge by 7 percent, to €8.32 a month. (NYT) If regulators want fiber, the right move is obviously to reduce the return on copper. Matthias Kurth got that one right, cutting Germany's access charges.

    Update 14 April Telefonica presented to investors a dismal prospect for its business in Spain and up to 6,000 layoffs. That's one way to make the numbers work for a few years but only a temporary solution.