Telephone customers changed 8.8 million times between companies during the year of the pandemic
Telephony once again closed an intense year in changes of operator. Despite the brake caused by the state of alarm in the spring of last year, when the Government stopped portability for several weeks, the 2020 financial year ended with 8.8 million customers changing companies, adding the fixed and mobile data, according to CNMC statistics. It is 6.6% less than the number reached the previous year and is also below the record that stood in 2018 at 9.8 million.
MásMóvil follows in the wake of Movistar and Orange when testing businesses other than telephony
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Taking into account only the second half of the year, 2020 reached the highest data ever recorded for the change of operator, showing the intense commercial campaigns that companies had, especially around the summer. Specifically, between July and December there were 5.3 million portabilities between fixed and mobile. It represents an increase of 8.3% compared to the data obtained in 2019. In this period, the two months with the highest rate of change of operators in the historical line were recorded: September and October.
By companies, the great winner, as has happened in recent years, has been the MásMóvil group. The fourth operator in the country closed the year with 320,000 new mobile phone customers. Their data contrasts with the evolution of the three big companies. Telefónica has seen the loss of more than 270,000 lines in Spain during 2020, compared to 15,200 for Vodafone or 416,000 for Orange, the company that fared worse in the year of the pandemic.
The evolution of the Virtual Mobile Operators during the year stands out, encompassing all the small brands that are not situated in the environment of the four largest groups. They gained more than 383,100 clients during the year, an evolution even more positive than that of MásMóvil. The CNMC does not go into detail about which operators are the ones that have gained the most among this group, but in the sector it is usually pointed out to the evolution that the Romanian Digi and Virgin Telco, a subsidiary of Euskaltel are having for its expansion throughout the territory.
The mobile broadband voice fleet gained 123,592 lines in December and closed with a total of 47.2 million mobile broadband voice lines, 2.1% more than in the same month of 2019.
Total fiber optic lines to the home (FTTH) reached 11.5 million, with a monthly growth of 86,034 lines. 40% of the total FTTH lines correspond to Movistar, with a park of 4.6 million lines. At an annual level, compared to December 2019, the increase of 1.4 million FTTH lines stands out compared to the loss of 0.8 million lines with DSL technology.
