Movistar falter as Spanish telecom companies ranked on speed

MOVISTAR has come out bottom of the list after online streaming content provider Netflix released its broadband speed ranking of Spanish telecoms companies. Positions are based on the speeds available to users who connect to the entertainment service during the prime time hours of 8pm to 11pm.

The telecoms company, which is owned by Spanish giant Telefonica, has admitted there are problems with its service, estimated at a speed of 2.15 Mbps (megabits per second). 

In contrast Euskaltel in the Basque Country carried a speed of 4.15 Mbps, whilst ONO-Vodafone and Orange carried 3.85 Mbps and 3.72 Mbps respectively.

Movistar’s ranking makes it the fourth worst performer in Europe according to Netflix, who said that problems encountered by lower speeds include “poorer image quality” and “slower video starts”.

Telefonica claims that its own service provides an average download speed of between 8 and 11Mbps and released a statement saying it “complies with interconnection recommendations and rules issued by authorities and regulators.”

Netflix is a subscription based supplier of online media and arrived in Spain on October 20, having spread like wild-fire across the Anglophone world and Japan. Almost 70 million people subscribe to its services worldwide and it spent several months negotiating co-operation with Telefonica before its Spanish debut.