Spanish Mobile Telephone Operators
An overview of the Spanish Mobile Telephone Operators. Movistar the state incumbant, Vodafone, Orange and Mas Mobile have extensive mobil networks. Jazztel and many others offer their service by reselling operators networks.
Movistar
Movistar was Telefónica, like the equivalent of BT in the UK the original state monopoly operator. Moviline, a sister company pioneered the mobile phone market in Spain from 1990 until its closure in 2004. It was Moviline that provided the first car phones and mobile phones in Spain. Nowadays, Movistar dominates the Spanish market covering around 65% and offers reasonable call rates compared to its two competitors below. It has the largest number of users and the best coverage in the whole of Spain. Not known for its customer service.
Vodafone
Competitors of Movistar, in 2002 Vodafone bought out Airtel, which had been operating in Spain for over 10 years. It is worth shopping around for a good offer when buying a phone. Vodafone had the best coverage in Spain in 2019 with its 4G/LTE network covering 96% of the country. Service between Spain and UK is good with Vodafone being a UK based company. Good for roaming. Has Customer Servise in English.
Orange
This is the newest of the three main mobile network providers in Spain, having been in existence since the late ‘90’s as Amena. It is a strong competitor in the market. Orange's rebranded France Telecom network covered 91% of the country. cheap phones on offer and low call rates, sometimes as low as 3 cents per minute.
MasMobil
MasMovil is the relative newcomber to the Spanish telecoms industry, founded in 2006 by Meinrad Spenger. It grew in the mid 2010s by the adquisition of several smaller companies Neo, Quantum Telecom, Xtra Telecom, Embou y YouMobile. It purchased Yoigo and their network in 2016 which originated form Xfera. In 2020 it grew to a 15% market share including its three affiliate companies Yoigo (which sells MásMóvil, LlamaYA, Lebara España y Hits Mobile), Pepephone and Lycamobile España..
Mobile Virtual Network Operators
There are over a hundred operators in Spain who offer their services by reselling the networks of the above companies. They are classified as MNVO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). The larger ones are Tuenti, Lowi, Amena, Simyo, Three and Lobster.
Jazztel
Independent phone company founded in 1998s by Martin Varsavsky who was a fan of Jazz music. The Spanish company was owned by a UK company Jazztel plc which was in turn listed on the Madrid stock exchange. In 2014 it was purchased by Orange for 3.4b€. In 2016 the company was absorbed into Orange and now exists as a commercial brand of Orange. Jazztel offers Telephone, Internet and Television services.
Lobster
Lobster has full network coverage in Spain using Telefónica (Movistar) to provide the national service. Full international and roaming coverage is provided by Gibtelecom in additional to the rest of the technological infrastructure. An ‘all-in-English’ support service. SIM-only and all 4G network.