Ourense ranks lowest in Spain for fiber optic coverage

Ourense has become the Spanish province with the lowest fiber optic coverage, according to the latest report from the Ministry for Digital Transformation. Currently, fiber reaches only 80.95% of inhabited households in the province, placing it nearly 15 percentage points below the national average.

The situation is more severe when considering the total housing stock. While there are 267,164 constructed homes in the province, only 133,564 are inhabited by registered residents. This means coverage across the actual built environment drops to 70.76%, leaving nearly three out of ten houses without fiber optic access.

In rural areas like the village of Souto in Vilamarín, residents face significant connectivity gaps. Despite the installation of infrastructure such as poles, operators have reportedly declined to extend connections to individual homes due to low profitability. This has forced some residents to rely on intermittent 4G signals or satellite services like Starlink to perform remote work and access cloud services.