Private company

Yoigo

Logo: Xfera Móviles S.A., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Spanish mobile network operator

Xfera Móviles, S.A.U., d/b/a Yoigo, is a Spanish telecommunications company in Spain and a subsidiary of the Spanish telecommunications company Grupo MásMóvil, a subsidiary of MásOrange. Although it commercially launched in December 2006, the company was founded in 2000, and had a turbulent start.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

2000Founded1
  • Industrymobile phone industry, telecommunications industry1
  • Founded inMadrid1
  • Websitewww.yoigo.com
  • Legal formsociedad anónima1

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Sede Yoigo 1
Photo: LauraPerez189, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

Xfera Móviles, S.A.U., d/b/a Yoigo, is a Spanish telecommunications company in Spain and a subsidiary of the Spanish telecommunications company Grupo MásMóvil, a subsidiary of MásOrange.2

Corporate structure

Yoigo is part of a group headed by MásOrange. 21 entities, 2 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • MásOrange Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
    • Euskaltel Derio, Spain
      • R CABLE Y TELECABLE TELECOMUNICACIONES, S.A.U. Subsidiary · Coruña, A, Spain
    • Grupo MásMóvil
      • Yoigo
      • R Subsidiary · A Coruña
      • Telecable Subsidiary
    • MÁSMÓVIL Subsidiary
      • Llamaya Subsidiary
      • Lebara Spain Subsidiary · Spain
      • Lyca Mobile Subsidiary · United Kingdom
    • Orange España Subsidiary · Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
    • Pepephone Subsidiary · Pozuelo de Alarcón
    • KAIXO BONDCO TELECOM, S.A. Subsidiary · Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
    • KAIXO TELECOM, S.A. Subsidiary · Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain
    • LORCA TELECOM BIDCO, S.L Subsidiary · Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
    • MASBUSINESS FTTH S.L. Subsidiary · Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
    • MASBUSINESS INFRASTRUCTURES, S.L. Subsidiary · Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
    • MASMOVIL IBERCOM, S.A. Subsidiary · Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain
    • MASORANGE TELECOM BONDCO SA Subsidiary · Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
    • XFERA MOVILES SA Subsidiary · Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Originally the carrier was to be called Xfera, a name reflected in its currently registered name of Xfera Móviles, SA. It was formed in 2001 as a consortium to compete for a new UMTS licence in Spain, which it finally won. At the time, its main shareholders were the French company Vivendi, the Spanish construction company Grupo ACS and Scandinavian cell phone carrier Sonera (now Telia Company).

After several technology and market problems in 2001, in common with the general launch delay suffered by UMTS technology throughout Europe, the company was at a standstill for several years. Its only operations during that time were the creation of its brand image, trying to achieve an agreement with an existing network operator to act as a backup for their newly created 3G network, and the setting up of a number of base stations so as to not lose their UMTS licence, which required them to maintain an active service prior to a qualifying date.

As of June 2003 most of its investors 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 group by selling its shares to the rest of the 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 a third party network as backup coverage while Xfera's own network was built. Further increasing operating costs, for legal reasons the company was obliged to keep a number of base stations operating from 2003 on, despite the fact that the company had no actual users. This was due to the terms of the licence Xfera had been awarded, and failure to comply with such terms would have put Xfera in a poor position to rebuild its network, or even to keep the licence.

The remaining shareholders as of May 2005 were a number of Spanish companies with no previous experience in telecommunications (Grupo ACS at 34.8% of shares, Corporación Financiera Alba at 11.7%, Abertis at 8.4%, Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas at 7.5% and Abengoa at 5.4%) with technical support from Sonera (now TeliaSonera, a Scandinavian cell phone carrier) which owned a non-controlling stake of 32.2%.

After several years during which the implementation of the Spanish government's recommendations was delayed, the latter threatened to withdraw the licence if public actions were not taken. Actual operations started in June 2006, when TeliaSonera, a minority holder until then, acquired up to 76.56% of Xfera's shares and stated that they would restart building its UMTS network and start offering mobile services later in the year.

In October 2006, Xfera announced that it would launch the commercial service in December under its new brand Yoigo. The new name was chosen to reflect the simplicity in rates and ease of use of their services.

At their launch in December 2006, Yoigo started with a limited UMTS network. Yoigo has now reached 80% national coverage, incorporating 4G LTE technology for their customers since summer 2013.

Read the full text

Yoigo's logo bears some resemblance to the style of Three's and Vivo's, which also have no single colour set.

Grupo MásMóvil bought the company in June 2016.

Brand positioning

Yoigo states that it bases its commercial strategy on "simplicity, efficacy, and low cost", and on the absence of small print, to differentiate itself from competitors. It seeks to define itself as "simple, just, clever, honest, and effective." Its advertising is simple, and uses childlike voices and phrases such as "real truth" or "really really" to gain consumers' confidence.

In December 2014, Yoigo implemented a change to its brand positioning, which highlights the differences compared to the rest of the operators.

Similarly, there are several versions of its logo in various colours to highlight its character as being different to other operators, which – according to Yoigo's advertising – differ only in colour.

From Wikipedia’s article on Yoigo, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Products and brands

  • telephone

Listed on Wikidata.1

Market

Yoigo's operations were hastily brought to market by TeliaSonera under pressure from the Spanish government, who had seen a six-year delay in the actual use of a much-valued UMTS license. Nevertheless, Yoigo's CEO claimed they held a European record in bringing a cell company to market, since from the time when TeliaSonera had gained control to the actual date of launch only 150 days had passed.

Yoigo was born with largely sparse coverage of its own, relying heavily on a national roaming agreement with Vodafone's GSM network. Thus, services such as fast 3G internet access were restricted to those on Yoigo's own coverage footprint, limited to the largest cities, and others like video calling were not present at all.

As for the sales network, Yoigo signed an exclusive 3-month agreement with The Phone House (Spanish branch of The Carphone Warehouse) for distribution of their products in physical shops, while making most of their sales at their online shop. In April 2007 talks were started with other distributors like Carrefour and El Corte Inglés, as Yoigo is not expected to create any sales network of its own. It does have only-brand stores under the form of franchises owned by The Carphone Warehouse and other smaller groups.

However, the simple and cheap rates Yoigo offered (0.12 € per minute and 0.12 € connection charge at every call, at any time or number within Spain) plus the inexpensive data plans (0.12 €/KiB up to a maximum of 1.20 € a day) drew customers. The company itself announced having tripled their expectations during the first months from launch and credited this unexpected success for the delays experimented in shipping of orders.

Read the full text

In January 2009 Yoigo reached its first million customers.

Between January and March 2016, Yoigo increased its revenues by 10.6%, reaching 221 million euros, as announced by its parent company TeliaSonera.

Yoigo's competitors range from the three main phone carriers in Spain (Movistar, Vodafone Spain and Orange España) to the new MVNOs like Simyo, Carrefour Móvil, Euskaltel Móvil, Happy Móvil (from The Carphone Warehouse) and Lebara.

Subsidy of mobile devices

In its market entry, Yoigo's CEO, Johan Andsjö, criticized the gift terminal strategy of other operators on various occasions, assuring that they would never offer free terminals. This supposes a different strategy with respect to the rest of the operators in Spain, where the majority of users change operator most often due to rates and services, according to studies conducted in 2005. From June 2008, Yoigo abandoned this practice and began to offer terminals virtually free, but in 2012 they again stopped subsidizing new phones or smartphones, uniting the Movistar and Vodafone initiative and leaving Orange as the only operator in Spain with this type of strategy.

Smartphone leasing

On the first week of March 2014, Yoigo announced that it would introduce what it described as 'car-style' leasing deals on a range of smartphones. The operator has yet to provide details of the handsets available under the plan or specific prices, other than clarifying that customers will need to pay an upfront fee followed by 24 monthly payments, its amounts depending on the chosen smartphone and plan. At the end of the 24 months, customers can either return the handset and sign up for a new model or else make a final payment to keep the phone.

Agreements on shared infrastructure and location

In July 2007, Yoigo subscribed to an agreement to share the location of antennas with its rival Movistar. The shared placement agreement included permission for each operation to install UMTS antennas in rented locations of each other, and would allow for both companies to reduce renting costs. However, the agreement did not imply that Yoigo subscribers would have full coverage or the network service of Movistar.

In January 2008, the firm made a similar agreement public about the use of shared location with Orange.

Coverage through other networks

In its market entry, Yoigo had a national roaming agreement with Vodafone which guaranteed access to its GSM network until 2012, which offered 99% national coverage, significantly extending its area and quality of coverage, although access to Internet under Vodafone coverage is limited to GPRS speeds (maximum of 64 kbit/s). Therefore, some 3G network services which require a greater capacity and speed, like fast access to the internet, are limited to users who have Yoigo 3G network coverage. Customers that wish to access the internet under Vodafone coverage can do so, but only using GPRS access with smaller bandwidth.

Yoigo is extending its network in big population centers, although the expansion speed is limited by the hindrances of local corporations when installing new antennas. Even so, Yoigo, through Ericsson, is rapidly expanding its network.

On 11 March 2008, a new national roaming agreement was made public between Yoigo and Movistar. Starting in June 2008, it allows Yoigo clients to use the GSM and UMTS networks of Movistar, the most extensive in Spanish territory. The initial length of the agreement was 5 years. Although the agreement permits the use of Movistar's network in national territory, including protocol HSDPA, it doesn't guarantee the maximum data transfer speed. According to a Xataka Móvil report, the agreement with Vodafone will continue, although they prioritize the connection through Movistar.

On 21 February 2011, Yoigo announced that it would continue to use Movistar's network to provide service to clients that cannot find coverage under their own network. On 1 August 2013, it was announced that the national roaming agreement, which gave Yoigo access to Movistar's 2G and 3G networks, expanded its validity until 2016.

LTE network expansion

Yoigo has already begun to work on the expansion of its 4G LTE network in order to offer their services to about 80% of Spanish population in May 2016. At present, Yoigo's LTE technology network covers around 66% of Spanish population. The project has an investment of about 25 million euros, as the company reported. Yoigo will keep LTE technology in 50 provinces, but plans an extension to reach 1,163 Spanish municipalities, offering coverage to 7.5 million inhabitants.

From Wikipedia’s article on Yoigo, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

Former owners and parents

From Wikidata.1

Acquisitions

  1. 2006Acquired Yoigo1

Timeline

  1. 2024Acquired Acquired by MásOrange1
  2. 2016Acquired Acquired by MÁSMÓVIL1
  3. 2007Acquired Acquired by Telia Company1
  4. 2006Acquired Acquired by Yoigo1
  5. 2000Founded Founded in Madrid1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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