Spain, Leader in Fiber: What Comes Next? Keys to maximizing profitability and post-deployment value

The Paradigm of “Overlapped Spain”

Spain has exceeded 90% FTTH coverage and leads fiber deployment in Europe. However, looking closely at the map reveals a major dichotomy: in many urban centers, up to three or four operators compete for the same apartment block, while just around the corner, there are areas with no coverage at all. We have named this phenomenon of geographical asymmetry “Overlapped Spain“, a strategic challenge that marks the transition from massive deployment to operational optimization.

The question is no longer whether we have arrived — we have proven that we have. Now, the question lies in the sustainability of what has been built and our capacity to make it profitable. In an environment marked by pressure on margins and final price competition, the sector’s challenge transcends deployment: the focus must turn to the operational optimization of already deployed assets.

The Three Levers to Monetize the Deployed Asset

Wholesale Automation

Regarding the management and provisioning of service orders for end customers, the vast majority of operators have automated processes, reducing manual interventions to isolated actions. The uncomfortable question is a different one: what happens when the one signing up is not a single customer, but an entire ISP operator?

Here, the paradigm shifts:

• What footprint should be shared, and in which areas is it truly beneficial to incentivize competition?
• How long does it take to send the updated footprint and at what level: province, town, street, household, GESCAL?
• Are commercial offers, billing, and VLAN profiles already configured?
• Do credential generation, firewall rules, and provisioning system registration happen automatically, or do they depend on someone remembering to do them manually?

These questions sound technical, but the one that truly matters comes from the Business area, not IT: how long do we have to wait to start selling more? Every week of delay in that onboarding represents a week of revenue that doesn’t come in.

At Optare, we have consolidated this learning through our active participation in the BSS and OSS development of several wholesale operators: the key to success lies not exclusively in the power of the orchestrator or the footprint inventory, but in how well they connect with the rest of the ecosystem. Over the years, thanks to our experience across multiple projects, we have enriched our knowledge and evolved our solutions with multiple connectors: to CRMs, ticketing platforms, and fiber, mobile, and TV providers. This dense mesh of integrations and knowledge is the differentiating factor that reduces time and risk in these types of projects.

Data as a Financial Asset

In a consolidating market, evaluating the acquisition of a network is becoming an increasingly frequent activity. And buying a network implies asking very specific questions: to what extent does this infrastructure overlap with one’s own network? Is it located in an exclusive area or in a zone where four operators are already aggressively competing for the same building? Answering theoretically is not the same as doing so through exact footprint data, updated network surveys, and an inventory that faithfully reflects reality. This difference, today, translates directly into money: data quality has become just another financial asset.

This approach is not just theory: we have designed network auditing and survey systems, QoE tools, and multi-vendor activators with several operators — and they are now at their most critical moment.

On the other hand, within the framework of discussions on the Digital Networks Act — one of the key European Union policies directly affecting the telecommunications sector — complex and necessary debates are arising: the dilemma between a single European passport or greater regulatory power, driving European leaders through M&A processes to compete with North American and Asian giants, and vendor selection based on national criteria or technical certifications. At Optare, we fully agree on a fundamental point: local operators have solvently met their objectives, a factor that should be decisive in this scenario.

And what link does all of this have with IT? In reality, the relationship is absolute. Faced with an eventual migration to XGS-PON — where Spain holds the advantage of leading the copper switch-off in Europe — the question is not when, but whether we know which ONTs are compatible and exactly where they are deployed. If the activator is not multi-vendor, or if commercial logic is tangled with technical logic, the problem is discovered midway through the migration, not before. Once again, the answer lies in data quality and system flexibility.

Artificial Intelligence in Operations

We could talk at length about AI, and in fact, at Optare, we have developed our own proposal under the name “Augura Tech,” oriented not toward a generic AI, but toward designing business-specific solutions.

The differentiating value lies not in the model itself, but in the knowledge with which it is fed and its capacity to execute specific use cases. And we do not mean generic knowledge, but rather the kind learned in a NOC room or a War Room resolving an incident at three in the morning. That is precisely where AI multiplies value.

Once provisioning is automated, the focus shifts from deployment to assurance. There are tools — both with and without AI — that bring us closer to a level 4 of autonomy: full automation, real-time anomaly detection, and automatic remediation. We have implemented it, and it works.

However, reaching such a level of sophistication is not always the most profitable alternative. At times, the leap in maturity does not imply deploying a pharaonic platform, but rather more modest and precise actions: managing alarms well, prioritizing where automation is worthwhile, and being able to notify the NOC and the customer — proactively — that the incident is already being addressed. For this, a massive platform is not necessary. What is required is excellent data quality.

The opportunity

The phenomenon of “Overlapped Spain” does not constitute an infrastructure problem. It is the natural consequence of a deployment that has exceeded initial expectations, and which now demands the same level of ambition in its operation.

Those organizations that maintain rigorous control over their data and possess the appropriate processes to exploit it will obtain a real advantage for their asset during Due Diligence processes.

On the contrary, those who continue to value their business based exclusively on raw network coverage metrics will see their profitability penalized.

If you wish to evaluate the position and potential of your network on this new market map, we invite you to start a conversation with our team.