Digital connectivity in the tourist municipalities of southern Gran Canaria continues to exhibit a profoundly unequal landscape. Network quality records obtained throughout the spring and early summer of 2026 in various locations—such as postal code 35100 in San Fernando, 35128, and the municipality of Mogán—once again highlight the gap between the promise of high-speed mobile technology and the operational reality experienced daily by residents and professionals in the area. This data comes from the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC).
An extreme example of these deficiencies was documented on June 3, 2026, at 10:02 AM, through a test performed with an iPhone 15 Pro Max under Telefónica's 5G (NR) coverage in the heart of San Fernando (35100). Despite theoretically having a state-of-the-art network, the results reflected a complete service collapse: download speed plummeted to an unsustainable 0,6 Mbps, accompanied by an upload speed of barely 1,2 Mbps and a latency of 61,0 ms. This drastic mobile network outage in the middle of the morning highlights the serious saturation and performance problems plaguing the telecommunications infrastructure in key locations in the southern part of the island.
This critical episode follows one recorded weeks earlier, on April 25, 2026, when another mobile test using Telefónica's 5G network in the area showed a download speed of 4,0 Mbps compared to 19,0 Mbps upload speed, with a ping stuck at 69,0 ms. This severe asymmetry demonstrates the constant vulnerability of mobile networks during periods of peak commercial and tourist demand.
The picture is different, though not reaching optimal standards, when analyzing wired fixed network connections (LAN). A test conducted on June 25, 2026, in the neighboring municipality of Mogán showed a download speed of 35,2 Mbps and an upload speed of 7,1 Mbps, with an improved ping of 29,1 ms and a jitter of 10,3 ms. While this wired performance far surpasses the significant shortcomings of the mobile network, it remains far from the ultra-fast speeds of pure fiber optics demanded by a highly digitized international tourist destination.
These figures paint a fragile and frustrating picture for southern Gran Canaria. While landlines are intermittently sustaining daily operations, the fifth-generation mobile network is experiencing severe outages that directly impact the digital operations of residents, businesses, and visitors in a region vital to the island's economy.
