The Spanish mobile network market is highly competitive: Vodafone and Orange regularly contend for the second position in market share, and as of June 2016 the smallest operator Yoigo has a new owner. 

Movistar is the brand name that the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica uses for the mobile network in its home market. Telefónica itself is one of the largest telco companies in the world. The operator is present in 21 countries with a total of 130,000 employees and achieved worldwide revenues of over €47 billion in 2015.

While the company introduced the Movistar brand in Latin American countries in 2005, it has been active in Spain since the launch of GSM services back in 1995. Today, Movistar is the largest mobile operator in Spain with about 17.1 million subscribers, which equals a market share of roughly 30 percent. It offers GSM service at 900 and 1800 MHz, UMTS/3G at 900 and 2100 MHz and LTE at 800, 1800 and 2600 MHz.

Since the end of 2014, Movistar has supported 4G carrier aggregation – which means that suitable smartphones can combine LTE frequencies for higher bandwidth. 

Vodafone España has been present on the Spanish mobile communications market since the year 2000. Then, the British Vodafone Group acquired Airtel Móviles which had operated in Spain since 1994.

In Spain, Vodafone now has 14.1 million mobile customers, which adds up to a market share of about 25 per cent. In the fiscal year 2015/ 2016, Vodafone Spain achieved revenues of €4.5 billion which contributes about nine per cent to the whole Vodafone Group‘s financial result.

Vodafone‘s mobile network in Spain offers GSM service at 900 and 1800 MHz, UMTS/3G at 900 and 2100 MHz and LTE at 800, 1800 and 2600 MHz. The Vodafone mobile network in Spain supports LTE carrier aggregation of its 1800 and 2600 MHz frequency bands. The company offers LTE downlink speed with up to 300 Mbps and calls this service “4G+“. This service is available in all large cities including all provincial capitals as well as in many rural areas. Vodafone España continues to upgrade its mobile network sites to this “LTE Advanced“ standard. 

Orange España is the brand name of France Telecom‘s mobile network in Spain. It has been operating under this name since 2006. Previously, the network was known as “Amena“ – this brand name lives on in Orange Spain‘s portfolio as a low-cost offer that is only available on the internet. Also, its network serves a number of mobile virtual network operators such as MasMovil, Carrefour Móvil and others. With 12.8 million customers, Orange is the third largest Spanish mobile operator – its market share includes about 23 percent of the population. In the fiscal year 2015, Orange Spain achieved a revenue of €4.2 billion which contributed 10.5 percent to the whole Orange Group‘s 2015 results.

Orange Spain has deployed 2G networks at 900 and 1800 Mhz, 3G networks at 900 and 2100 MHz and 4G at 800, 1800 and 2600 MHz. Orange offers “4G+“ or “LTE Advanced“ with data rates of up to 200 Mbps in most larger cities including all provincial capitals. 

Yoigo was the latest mobile operator to enter the Spanish market. Founded in the year 2000 under the name Xfera, the company started its actual operation in 2006, offering only a UMTS/3G network at 2100 MHz. At this time, the Swedish telecommunications company TeliaSonera acquired the majority of shares and re- branded the network as “Yoigo“. This name was supposed to reflect the simplicity and ease in rates as well as in the use of the service. In June 2016, the former MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) Más- móvil bought the company.

Yoigo has a national roaming agreement with Movistar until the end of 2016, which is scheduled to switch to Orange in January 2017. Following the merger with Másmóvil, the customer base has increased from 3.7 million former Yoigo subscribers to approximately 4.2 million, which equals a market share of 7.5 percent.

In July 2013, Yoigo started the deployment of a 4G network at 1800 MHz. Its LTE coverage now includes all major Spanish cities and most of the provincial capitals. 

P3 communications GmbH, based in Aachen, Germany, is a world leader in mobile network testing. It is part of the P3 group, with over 3000 employees worldwide and a turnover of more than €300 million. P3 is partnering with the German telecommunications magazine connect, which has more than 20 years of editorial experience and is one of the leading test authorities in Europe for telecommunications products and services.
Together, P3 and connect have been conducting the most important mobile network benchmark test in Germany
for nearly 15 years, extending it to Austria and Switzerland
in 2009.

Starting in 2014, P3 has also been conducting network benchmarks in Australia and the UK, and expanded to cover the Netherlands and Spain last year.

In 2015 alone, P3 compiled more than 60,000 measurement hours in 47 countries, with its test vehicles covering more than 1.2 million kilometres. As the de-facto industry standard, the P3 benchmarking methodology focuses on customer-perceived network quality – examining both voice telephony that makes up 40% of the total result as well as data connectivity that accounts for 60% of the score. P3‘s network benchmarks are widely accepted as an objective authority.

Interesting results in 2016

After our first mobile network benchmark in Spain conducted in 2015, it was interesting to see whether the overall performance level would increase within one year – and whether there would be any surprising changes in the overall ranking. See for yourself how the Spanish operators per- formed in 2016