Internet in Spain

ADSL arrived in Spain in 1999. The main ISPs are:

* Telefónica (former state telecom monopoly. Bought Terra Networks, S.A., now part of the Telefónica Group.
* Direct Telecom (ADSL and VoIP Provider. Unique in Spain).
* Ya.com (started by Jazztel, later sold to T-Online. ).
* Orange (initially the internet branch of Uni2 Spain Wanadoo, it operates much like Terra, as a reseller of Telefonica ADSL services)
* Tele2 (bought Colt Telecom and Comunitel, offers 20 Mbit/s using fastpath mode (lower latency than the usual interleaved mode used by most ISPs)
* Jazztel, the first ISP to provide ADSL2+ throughout the country.

The average speed is 1024/300 kbit/s, [1 kbit = 1000 bit] costing €34 to €53 per month for an unmetered line. This is the standard for Telefónica and resellers - Telefónica owns most of the country's POTS last-mile wiring, and has very extended coverage of the country with ADSL. The ADSL service to the customer used to be provided exclusively by Telefónica in most cases, with the other ISPs reselling this infrastructure from Telefónica and sometimes providing some of the backend servers. Faster connections up to 8 Mbit/s are available, but the price is considerably higher (€150 for 8 Mbit/s). [1 Mbit = 1000 kbit]

Over the last 2 years companies such as Jazztel, Wanadoo, and Ya.com are offering packs including TV + Phone calls + ADSL up to 20 Mbit/s for €61-€90 per month, using ADSL2+. These are currently only available in larger cities and areas with high population density, as they are provided directly by the ISPs using self-deployed infrastructure; however, they are considerably cheaper and faster. Coverage is approximately 33% of the population.

Several companies, including [http://www.comunitel.es Comunitel] and [http://www.direct-telecom.es Direct Telecom] offer ADSL and VoIP (Internet Telephony) packages. They give the VoIP capabilities at no extra cost directly from the router they supply. As VoIP is becoming the norm in most of the world, Direct Telecom, from humble beginnings in 2000, is slowly overtaking the other big fish and getting a large percentage of the broadband market. Tele2 offers the same package (ADSL + free calls) for €46 per month.

Telefonica, Jazztel, and Wanadoo all provide DSL based television services (Imagenio, Jazztelia TV and Wanadoo TV respectively).

References