Yoigo
Blue logo
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| Sociedad Anónima | |
| Traded as | Yoigo |
| Industry | mobile phone operator |
| Founded | 2000, actual operation started in 2006 |
| Headquarters | Alcobendas, (Madrid), Spain |
| Products | mobile telephony, Internet services, 3G, LTE |
| Parent | Grupo MásMóvil |
| Website | www.yoigo.com |
Yoigo, legally Xfera Móviles S.A., is the fourth largest mobile phone and internet (4G) operator in Spain, subsidiary of the Spanish multinational telecommunications company Grupo MÁSMÓVIL. Yoigo has a licence and its own network for GSM/2G, UMTS/3G and LTE/4G technologies, and a national roaming agreement for use of the GSM and UMTS networks.
Although it was launched in December 2006, the company was founded in 2000, and had a turbulent start. From its creation, it was owned primarily by Telia Company, and since 21 June 2016 it is now the sole property of Grupo MÁSMÓVIL, after the CNMC authorised the purchase of 100% of its share capital.
Its main competitors are the other three companies with their own networks, Movistar, Vodafone, Orange, and from among the MVNOs, Tuenti, Lowi, Amena, Simyo.
Originally the carrier was to be called Xfera, a name reflected in its nowadays registered name of Xfera Móviles, SA. It was formed in 2001 as a consortium to compete for a new UMTS license in Spain, which finally won out. At the time, its main shareholders were French company Vivendi, the Spanish building company Grupo ACS and Scandinavian cell phone carrier Sonera (now Telia Company).
Yet after several technology and market problems in 2001, in line with the general launch delay suffered by UMTS technology all throughout Europe, the company was at a standstill for several years. Its only operations during that time were creating their brand image, trying to achieve an agreement with an existing network operator to act as a backup for their fresh born 3G network and setting up some base stations so as to not lose their UMTS license, which required them to have some active service prior to a given date.
As of June 2003 most of its owners were complaining about the huge amount of money they had lost in the yet-to-be-launched project, and in summer 2003 Vivendi —which faced problems of its own at that time— eventually left the company by selling its shares to the rest of shareholders at the symbolic price of 1 €.
In December 2003, with the backing of the remaining shareholders, the Board of Directors decided to make an additional investment of 135 million €, and opened negotiations with Amena (now Orange España) and Vodafone Spain, in the hope of using someone else's network as a backup coverage while Xfera's own network was built. Further increasing operating costs, for legal reasons the company was obliged to keep some base stations operating from 2003 on, despite the fact that the company had no actual users. This was due to the terms in the license Xfera had been awarded, and failure to comply with such terms would have put Xfera in a poor position to rebuild a network, or even to keep the license.
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Wikipedia