The Spanish competition regulator has delivered a major blow to the continued dominance of Telefonica there, and levelled the playing field with Vodafone and Orange. A public consultation has been initiated by the CNMC, suggesting that much of Telefonica’s fiber be opened up for wholesale re-use. This is the backlash that Telefonica should have seen coming – it has all the major sports rights, has been allowed to acquire the pay TV leader in the region and has a dominant market share in cellular, broadband and telephony. The CNMC is perhaps looking jealously at the way France has handled the unbundling of fiber so successfully, triggering widescale network improvement. In France the rules allows the first fiber operator to install…