Huawei, a member of Fiber Connect Council MENA, invited AMETIC, the Spanish digital technology industry association, to the Optical Summit at HUAWEI CONNECT 2026, held under the theme "Optical-AI Convergence". AMETIC President Francisco Hortigüela gave a keynote on Spain's experience with Passive Optical LAN (POL) and its new national standard, UNE 133100-8.
A strong fiber foundation
Spain ranks second in Europe for fiber coverage, reaching 95% of households and 86.3% of rural areas. As of June 2026 the country counted 18.2 million FTTH lines out of 19.9 million broadband lines, having completed its move from copper ADSL to fiber.
The "Fiber Ready" standard, UNE 133100-8
Developed by the Spanish standardization body UNE under the guidance of the State Secretariat for Telecommunications (SETELECO), the standard extends fiber-ready building requirements beyond homes to hospitals, hotels, and education, culture and tourism facilities. It is aligned with the EU Gigabit Infrastructure Act.
Why Passive Optical LAN
- It reduces the network from three layers to two.
- It cuts carbon emissions by about 60% compared with traditional Ethernet.
- Fiber reaches up to 40 km and lasts around 30 years.
- Bandwidth upgrades need no recabling.
Hortigüela also pointed to the Smart Hospitals POL white paper that AMETIC released in July 2026 with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and industry partners, stressing that digital transformation depends on future-ready connectivity, and that fiber readiness is essential to it.
Source: C114.