MasOrange deploys 5G Advanced across 42 locations in Spain

The deployment establishes a critical infrastructure bridge between current 5G standards and future 6G capabilities. By prioritizing L4S and 5G SA, MasOrange is specifically addressing the technical bottlenecks of the live streaming and VR industries, where sub-millisecond latency is the primary barrier to adoption. In the broader ecosystem, this move forces competitors like Telefónica and Vodafone Spain to accelerate their own advanced deployments to capture high-value enterprise and gaming segments. Watch for whether MasOrange announces a commercial 'premium' tier for low-latency streaming by the end of 2026.

The rollout by MasOrange in July 2026 occurs within a highly competitive Spanish market where major operators are pivoting toward 5G Standalone (5G SA) to monetize infrastructure. Per S&P Global (June 2026), Spain is a leader in this transition, with 5G SA coverage reaching 98.1% of the population as of late 2025. This infrastructure shift is driven by the need to support soaring data demands; per GSMA research from January 2025, European mobile data traffic is projected to reach 50 GB per connection by 2030, largely fueled by 4K and 8K video consumption.

Simultaneously, Telefónica has been leveraging its 26 GHz millimeter-wave spectrum to target high-density streaming scenarios. Per Sony and Telefónica (May 2026), recent trials at the Movistar Arena achieved heavy-uplink speeds of 1.8 Gbps, demonstrating the capacity for professional 4K television production and massive multimedia generation by spectators. While basic 5G coverage reached 96.8% of European households by mid-2026, the European Commission notes that the true competitive edge now lies in mid-band and advanced capabilities that facilitate edge computing and AI-driven services.

Industry analysts at Streaming Media (December 2025) suggest that sub-3-second latency will be the industry standard for sports and interactive broadcasts by late 2026. Technologies like L4S, which MasOrange has prioritized, are essential to realizing these benchmarks. As streaming accounts for nearly 47% of total television usage in certain markets (per Nielsen, May 2025), the focus of network operators has moved from simple coverage to providing the deterministic latency required by the next generation of real-time digital services.