One of Spain's smaller operators, TeliaSonera-owned Yoigo, is looking to more than double its market share by 2015 using low-cost offers.
The company, which has 4.3 per cent of the Spanish mobile market today, said it is aiming to boost this to 10 per cent--or 3 million customers--by 2015.
"We have already started a price war," Johan Andsjo, Yoigo's CEO, told Bloomberg. "Spain is still the most expensive European country in terms of rates, and it's obvious that amid the current macroeconomic crisis people switch operators to save money."
According to the exec, growing the company's customer base using low-cost pricing is sustainable, with charges of around €0.04 per minute for voice calls. Andsjo said the company also is looking to expand mobile data usage, and is targeting growth of 200 per cent in 2011. He said the shift will be helped by Yoigo expanding its network coverage from 67 per cent of Spain's population to 74 per cent, and increasing download speeds to 21 Mbps.
With an eye to LTE, Andsjo confirmed the company will participate in the forthcoming spectrum auctions.
"Our shareholders have already shown an interest in investing," said the CEO, without detailing how much spectrum they wanted to bid for or how much they might spend. "We want to continue being the fastest-growing phone operator in the market both in customers and revenues."
TeliaSonera, which has a 77 per cent holding in Yoigo, had considered selling its stake following Yoigo's poor performance shortly after its 2006 launch. Given the recent turnaround in Yoigo's fortunes, though, the Swedish-based telco now claims that its Spanish operation is more important to its global strategy.
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
Related Articles:
Yoigo launches international VoIP trial
Rumour mill: Will TeliaSonera dump Spanish venture to focus on Asia?
Telefónica's profit boosted by mobile, but Spain slides in Q4
Orange Spain to spend €500m on network upgrade