This article is about the Internet in Spain.

History

RETD was the first public data network in the world when it became operational in 1972. It evolved into

Iberpac Iberpac (or Red UNO) was the Spanish packet switched X.25 data network. It was operated by Telefónica España, the incumbent Spanish telecommunications operator. Iberpac lents its name to Iberpac Plus and Iberpac Básico, the latest X.25 services ...

Status

* Internet users: 42.40 million users; 91.0% of the population (2020) * Fixed broadband: 33.6 million subscriptions, 13th in the world; 83.4% of the population, 37th in the world (2019). * Mobile broadband: 25.0 million subscriptions, 13th in the world; 53.2% of the population, 24th in the world (2012)."Active mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"
Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE,

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. * Internet hosts: 4.2 million hosts, 26th in the world (2012). * IPv4: 28.4 million addresses allocated, 0.7% of the world total; 604 addresses per 1000 persons (2012). * Top level domain:

.es .es (espana) is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Spain. It is administered by the Network Information Centre of Spain. Registrations are permitted at the second level or at the third level beneath various generic second level categ ...

Fixed broadband

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

has one of the highest coverages of

FTTH Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber op ...

, having more than

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

altogether

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

arrived in

in 1999. In some rural areas, wireless technologies (

WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX ...

, LMDS,

Satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

, HSDPA, ...) are used to provide wired-like services, the main provider of these services is Iberbanda (a Telefónica subsidiary like Movistar), there are also other companies like San Pedro Wifi who are not part of Telefónica. Typically San Pedro Wifi can offer speeds over 100 Mbit/s. Virtually all wired connections are unmetered. Most broadband lines include free phone calls to land-lines within Spain and some include limited calls to mobile phones. Movistar offers 1 Gbit/s symmetrical. Other operators also have 1 Gbit/s offers, some symmetrical. Other providers such Orange and

Digi Digi may refer to: * Short for "digital" as in digicam, digiscale, digiscrap, digibee *Digi Communications, a Romanian telecommunications company in Romania, Hungary, Spain and Italy *Digi International, an American electronics manufacturer *Digi-K ...

offer symmetrical speeds up to 10 Gbps in limited, but steadily expanding geographical areas. The most common speed in Spain is 300 Mbit/s as it is the default offer from Movistar, the main broadband supplier in the country. Clients of other DSL companies usually have higher speeds sold as "Máxima velocidad" (maximum speed) or "Hasta 1 Gbps" (up to 1 Gbit/s); in those offers the speed of the connection depends on the quality of the line (length of the wire, attenuation, noise) as those speeds are just at the limit of the ADSL2+ technology.

Jazztel Jazztel is a Spanish telecommunications company which offers triple play services (telephone, Internet and television). In 2018, Jazztel was made to pay fines for their telemarketing tactics. About Jazztel was founded in 1998 by Martin Varsavsk ...

gets better results with its "Hasta 300 megas" (up to 300 Mbit/s) because that connection works with

VDSL Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber line ...

. In opposition to those unguaranteed offers,

Ono ONO, Ono or Ōno may refer to: Places Fiji * Ono Island (Fiji) Israel * Kiryat Ono * Ono, Benjamin, ancient site Italy * Ono San Pietro Ivory Coast * Ono, Ivory Coast, a village in Comoé District Japan * Ōno Castle, Fukuoka * Ō ...

, the main cable provider, sells its connections as "x megas reales" (x Mbit/s). The main

providers Providers is a Danish hip hop, R&B and pop song production team made up of Jeppe Federspiel and Rasmus Stabell.Movistar (

) – Former state telecom monopoly. * Orange (

) *

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

( HFC) * MÁSMÓVIL (

and HFC) Movistar, Vodafone, Orange and MÁSMÓVIL are the main providers offering TV packages with their broadband.

Mobile broadband

The use of mobile networks for Internet access is important due to the high penetration of smart and

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s in Spain. The use of USB devices for computers to connect to mobile networks is also common and some fixed broadband providers offer them for free or at low cost for use on holidays. People usually use flat rates for Internet with limits depending on the price, once that limit is reached, the speed falls from ~7 Mbit/s to ~128 kbit/s (depending on the provider) or the client pays for the extra amount of data downloaded. There are three 2G ( GSM) networks, four 3G (

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Inte ...

, HDSPA, HSUPA, etc...) networks and

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement *** LTE Advanced Pro * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq * ...

networks are being deployed. Nearly all of Spain is covered by at least UMTS. The main providers are: * Movistar – Former state telecom monopoly. * Orange *

* MÁSMÓVIL

Internet censorship in Spain

There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or, as of 2012, reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms without appropriate legal authority."Spain"
''Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012'', Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 22 March 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013. Complaints about Internet censorship in Spain often focus on chilling effects that come from narrowing the definition of fair use. In 2014, for example, the Spanish version of

Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google rel ...

was shut down as continued operation would have required it to pay fees for each news link that it aggregates. The constitution provides for

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

and

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a famil ...

, and the government generally respects these rights. The law prohibits, subject to judicial oversight, actions including public speeches and the publication of documents that the government interprets as glorifying or supporting

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

. The law provides that persons who provoke discrimination, hatred, or violence against groups or associations for racist; anti-semitic; or other references to ideology, religion or belief, family status, membership within an ethnic group or race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, illness, or disability may be punished with imprisonment for one to three years. The constitution prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence and the government generally respects these prohibitions. In 2004, the police in Spain arrested ninety people in an operation against the distribution of

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...

. In February 2008 the editor of a news website, his wife and his daughter received death threats linked to the investigation into a real estate project in which several Murcia politicians and a local businessman were allegedly involved in corrupt practices. In 2009 the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, warned Spain against cutting off the Internet access of content pirates without a judicial proceeding. She said, "If Spain cuts off Internet access without a procedure in front of a judge, it would certainly run into conflict with the European Commission" and "Repression alone will certainly not solve the problem of Internet piracy; it may in many ways even run counter to the rights and freedoms which are part of Europe's values since the French Revolution." In 2012, 16 cases were brought under the law prohibiting publications glorifying or supporting terrorism. On 13 April 2012,

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

Marc Mora Garcia was sentenced to two years in jail for spreading ideas and doctrines

justifying genocide ''Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler'' is a 2016 book by Stefan Ihrig which explores how violence against the Ottoman Armenians, from the Hamidian massacres to the Armenian genocide, influenced German views and ...

and promoting discrimination, hate, and violence through a web page. On 20 April 2012, Madrid-based Radio SER journalist Pilar Velasco was charged with violating confidentiality after posting a secretly-recorded video of a politician online and with refusing to reveal how she came by the video. In 2014, newspaper ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'' reported that ''El Agitador'', a satirical blog from

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

, had been ordered to pay €50,000 in three separate proceedings related to satirical cartoons which complained about widespread corruption in the region. Since January 2015, Vodafone Spain blocks

The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute mag ...

as requested by the Ministry of Interior. And since 29 March 2015 the site is blocked on multiple URLs from all ISPs. On 13 September 2017, the

Civil Guard Civil Guard refers to various policing organisations: Current * Civil Guard (Spain), Spanish gendarmerie * Civil Guard (Israel), Israeli volunteer police reserve * Civil Guard (Brazil), Municipal law enforcement corporations in Brazil Histori ...

seized referendum.cat, a Catalan website promoting the Catalan independence referendum, pursuant to an order by the

High Court of Justice of Catalonia The High Court of Justice of Catalonia ( ca, Tribunal Superior de Justícia de Catalunya, TSJC) is the highest body and last judicial instance of the Spanish judiciary in Catalonia. Unlike the Parliament of Catalonia (legislative branch) or the ...

, as the country has considered the referendum to be illegal. The Guard subsequently obtained orders to seize other

.cat .cat (pronounced in Catalan: ''punt cat'' ) is a sponsored top-level domain intended to be used to highlight the Catalan language. Its policy has been developed by ICANN anFundació puntCAT It was approved in September 2005. History Before . ...

domains hosting

mirrors A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...

of the referendum website, and later on 23 September 2017, an order for all ISPs to block any website publicized by Catalan politicians as mirrors of the referendum website. Also censored was an HTTP gateway for the

InterPlanetary File System The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a protocol, hypermedia and file sharing peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system. IPFS uses content-addressing to uniquely identify each file in a global namespace ...

—a distributed file system that had been used to mirror the materials. On 10 October 2017, the Spanish

blocked access to Whats-app groups of several pro-Catalan independence groups. As of December 2017, all previously blocked sites have once again been unblocked, with the focus shifting to taking the sites down directly.

References

External links

ESNIC
Network Information Centre of Spain, domain name registrar. {{DEFAULTSORT:Internet In Spain Telecommunications in Spain