On September 1, Movistar announced, against all odds, that it was going to start rolling out 5G en masse throughout Spain. The company accompanied the announcement with another figure: that 75% of the population would have 5G coverage before the end of the year. This figure is much higher than that offered by Vodafone or Orange, despite the fact that the former has been operating 5G since summer 2019. So, how have they done it?
Today, in a press release in which Movistar has commented that the second television advertisement of 2021 will be theirs, they have commented in passing that Movistar’s coverage of 5G already reaches 80% of the population of Spain, exceeding the 75% that announced a few days ago and with which they anticipated their own forecasts at the beginning of September. Vodafone, according to the latest figures available at the beginning of the year, already reached 40% of the population.
The DSS, the key to the accelerated deployment of Movistar
The difference lies, basically, in the type of deployment that each operator has chosen. All operators that currently offer “real” 5G NSA do so through the 3.6 GHz band , the only one currently tendered in Spain for this, since the 700 MHz and 26 GHz auctions will take place in 2021 Currently, all use 5G NSA, which still depends on the infrastructure of the 4G network despite the fact that the links between mobiles and antennas are made with native 5G antennas.
In that band, Vodafone has 90 MHz of spectrum, like Movistar. Orange has 100 MHz, and Yoigo 80 MHz. Vodafone’s, however, is the only contiguous spectrum, since the others are divided into several blocks. This allows Vodafone today to offer more speed, but it is not the only thing they offer better.
Currently, there are two ways to offer 5G . One of them is deploying new antennas , and the other is updating current equipment by firmware . Vodafone has currently deployed only new antennas in Spain, hence its deployment has been slower. However, Movistar, like Orange and Yoigo, in addition to deploying new equipment, are also deploying 5G thanks to software updates. This can be done thanks to DSS, or Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.
DSS has advantages and disadvantages
Thus, with DSS, operators can software update the 3G and 4G antennas to take advantage of the frequencies and use them to offer 5G, where the antenna intelligently chooses which connection to offer users who connect, balancing the spectrum as necessary .
The problem with DSS is that, since it is sharing spectrum with 3G and 4G, the maximum speed that can be reached is lower, in addition to being limited by the hardware of the old antenna compared to a native 5G antenna. Currently the frequencies used with DSS are 1,800 and 2,100 MHz.
Movistar, Orange and Yoigo are also deploying new 5G antennas like Vodafone, but the red operator is currently far ahead in the deployment of real 5G at 3.6 GHz, with a presence in more cities, and covering for example 50% of Barcelona with 5G antennas avoiding the use of DSS.
In short, all operators are deploying 5G NSA, but Vodafone is prioritizing the deployments of native 5G antennas, while the other operators have preferred to opt for DSS to achieve a higher 5G coverage percentage, thus making it difficult for users to distinguish if in their mobiles are receiving the “good” 5G or the one that uses DSS.
