Mobile telephony in Spain

The market is very dynamic and reached €11.5bn in service revenues in 2005 (up 11%). Three operators are currently running 2G and 3G networks. Movistar (the brand of Telefonica Moviles) is the undisputable market leader with 51% market share. Vodafone is second with 31%, followed by Amena (France Telecom unit) with 20%. Xfera, which hold a 3G UMTS license, has not yet fulfilled its 3G obligations and launched services. Its future should depend on the help of a partner, perhaps Teliasonera. A solution should be founded soon as the deadline for launching service is in the summer, and the local regulator warns of taking back the 3G license in case of failure. The market is very hot and penetration is closed to 100%. So growth should mainly come from taking customers to competition (churn is high with 11000 customers changing their mobile operator each day) through discounted and price war campaigns.