Yoigo is Spain’s fourth mobile operator. The company was born from the demise of Xfera, a subsidiary of construction giant ACS, which bought the rights to one of Spain’s 3G licences back in 2000. However, by 2006, Xfera had still not launched. Last summer, TeliaSonera, the leading mobile operator in the Nordic region bought Xfera. In only three months Yoigo was up and running. By the end of December it had 30,000 subscribers. It has its own 3G network but uses Vodafone’s 2G network for national calls.
Recently, Yoigo started offering unlimited 3G broadband access for a daily rate of only €1.20! In other words you can now have highspeed internet access anywhere in Spain for as little as €36 per month! ADSL providers must surely be worried and a price war looks certain to follow.
Perhaps the bigger worry is for the developers of Wi-Max and companies such as Fon. Achieving wireless network coverage that is as good as current mobile coverage is going to be costly (especially in the case of Wi-Max) and will take time. If all mobile operators reduce their prices to this level the uptake is likely to be huge and by the time Fon or Wi-Max are able provide comparable coverage there will be little incentive to switch.
