Spanish 5G traffic grew 61.1% year on year in the second quarter of 2026 and now carries 24.6% of all mobile broadband data, yet retail service revenue barely moved, holding at €5.648 billion. That is the core of the latest quarterly report from the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC), Spain's competition and markets regulator. The figures describe a market that carries ever more data for roughly the same money.

Total mobile broadband traffic reached 2.8 million terabytes in the quarter. Retail revenue of €5.648 billion sits practically level with the €5.657 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2025. In other words, operators moved 17% more total mobile traffic for €9 million less.

How fast is 5G actually growing?

The 5G network itself is expanding on two fronts at once: usage and infrastructure. Spain's 5G networks carried 26.9 million lines as of June 2026, supported by 43,583 sites, more than 20% of the country's mobile base stations. More than 70% of that 5G traffic runs across the networks of MasOrange and Telefónica.

The wider mobile market grew more slowly. Total mobile traffic rose 17% year on year across a base of 64.2 million lines, of which nine in ten have an internet connection. The gap between 61% 5G growth and 17% overall growth shows users migrating their consumption onto the newer networks, not simply consuming more in aggregate.

The imbalance carries a cost. Rising traffic pushes operators to keep investing in capacity — more sites, more spectrum backhaul — while the revenue line that funds that investment stays flat. It is the familiar European dilemma of usage-led growth without price-led growth, now quantified in a single quarter.

Where did the money go?

Revenue shifted between operators even as the total stood still. Movistar (Telefónica) remains the market leader with 36.3% of retail revenue, but its takings fell 2.4% year on year. Orange España (MasOrange) holds second place with 28.4%. Vodafone gained 1.1% to reach 13.7%.

Digi posted the standout performance. The Romanian challenger grew revenue 14.4% and now accounts for 4.4% of retail takings, while gathering 12.5% of all mobile lines. Together the four operators control 82.8% of retail revenue and 96.8% of mobile lines.

The pattern is straightforward: incumbents lose value while a discounter adds volume. If that trend holds, Spanish market share will keep concentrating in lines while fragmenting in revenue.

What is happening on fixed networks?

The fixed side of the market is nearly finished converting to fibre. By June 2026, 91.4% of fixed broadband lines ran over FTTH. Spain counts 81.5 million installed FTTH accesses out of 89.1 million next-generation network (NGA) accesses in total — coverage that far exceeds its 20 million fixed broadband connections, a legacy of overlapping builds by rival operators.

Speeds on those connections keep climbing. Of the 20 million fixed broadband lines, 19.5 million are contracted at 100 Mbps or faster, and 8.1 million at 1 Gbps or faster. That means more than 40% of lines above the 100 Mbps threshold are gigabit-class. The fixed market is even more concentrated than mobile: Movistar, Orange España, Vodafone and Digi together hold 93.9% of fixed lines.

What comes next?

The CNMC numbers leave Spanish operators with an arithmetic problem rather than a demand problem. Traffic grows at double digits, 5G traffic at three times that rate, and revenue does not grow at all. With Digi expanding its line base at double-digit rates and the two market leaders absorbing most of the 5G traffic load, the pressure to monetise next-generation capacity — through pricing, consolidation or wholesale deals — will define the sector's next several quarters of CNMC reporting.