Telefónica tests ultra-fast 5G at Movistar Arena
May 19, 2026 11.03 Europe/London By Julian Clover


Telefónica has validated a multi-gigabit 5G deployment at Madrid’s Movistar Arena using the 26GHz band.

The pilot, carried out with Sony, reached upload speeds of more than 1.8Gbps, which Telefónica says is the highest yet deployed on a commercial 5G network in Spain.

The trial used a Heavy Uplink configuration designed to prioritise high upload capacity, enabling real-time transmission of 4K audiovisual signals for live production while also supporting connectivity for thousands of event attendees.

Sony tested a 5G production workflow using its CBK-RPU7 remote production unit, HXC-FZ90 camera, PDT-FP1 portable data transmitter and NXL-ME80 multimedia processor.

Leonor Ostos, director of product and service development at Telefónica Spain, said the deployment demonstrated Telefónica’s commitment to next-generation networks and use cases requiring large volumes of real-time data.

Rob Thorne, head of Networked Live at Sony Professional Europe, said the trial showed 5G is now capable of meeting “the high-quality, low-latency demands of today’s live production”.

Telefónica said the test builds on earlier 5G production work at venues including Abanca-Riazor in A Coruña, Riyadh Air Metropolitano and the Acciona Open de España golf tournament.