Yoigo

Yoigo, whose company name is Xfera Móviles, S. A. U., is a telecommunications services company, owned by the MásMóvil Group. It offers fixed telephone, mobile telephone, internet (fiber and 5G) and television (Agile TV) services in Spain.

The Yoigo operator entered the market on December 1, 2006, as the fourth mobile operator in Spain. In 2016 it was sold by the Swedish TeliaSonera to the MásMóvil Group, making Yoigo the fourth convergent operator nationwide. after Movistar, Orange and Vodafone.

The company Xfera Móviles, S.A.U., in addition to the Yoigo brand, also uses others such as MásMóvil, Llamaya, Lebara España, Lycamobile España, Cable Móvil, Netllar, Oceans and Hits Mobile.

History

Before Yoigo: Xfera

Initially this operator was going to be called Xfera, a name that is preserved today in its legal name. It was created in 2000 to compete in a competition for a new UMTS license in Spain, which it ended up winning. At that time, its main shareholders were the French company Vivendi, the Spanish construction company ACS and the Finnish mobile telephone operator Sonera, later known as TeliaSonera. Yoigo wanted to bet on 3G technology through more accessible rates for users, since the lack of competition at the time affected the high cost of existing rates by telephone companies. However, due to multiple technological and market, and in line with the general delay suffered in the launch of UMTS technology throughout Europe, the company remained without commercial activity for several years.

After changes in the shareholding, a capital increase, the threat of withdrawal of license by the Spanish Government if public activity was not started, and to avoid the execution of the 467 million euros deposited in concept of guarantee, in June 2006 the revitalization of Xfera began, when TeliaSonera chose to take over 76.56% of the company by purchasing the participation of several shareholders. 80% of the company's capital and ACS with the remaining 20%, and that the other shareholders left the company, but finally FCC and Abengoa resisted leaving the shareholding.

When Xfera went on the market, Yoigo's shareholding structure was as follows:

• TeliaSonera: 76.56%
• ACS: 17%
• FCC: 3.44%
• Abengoa 3%.

Yoigo

Once taking control of the company, TeliaSonera announced that Xfera would go on the market in the same year 2006. In October of that year it was announced that the new name of the company would be Yoigo and Sales would begin in December. Swede Erik Johan Andsjö was appointed CEO of Yoigo. In September 2012, Johan Andsjö left Yoigo, and Eduardo Taulet joined as the new CEO, who at that time was only 33 years old. Until now, Eduardo Taulet had been the brand's Marketing and Sales Director. As of the end of 2016, he began offering Fiber Optic and ADSL services in five cities: Madrid, Seville, Toledo, Huelva and Zaragoza. On July 1, 2017, Yoigo began to expand Fiber Optic and ADSL coverage throughout Spain.

On April 3, 2018, Yoigo inaugurated the rate with unlimited mobile gigabytes in Spain, being the first time that a telecommunications operator in Spain offered a service that included fiber optics and calls and infinite gigabytes from mobile.

Going to the market

The commercial launch took place on December 1, 2006 in contract and prepaid modalities. Block pricing was criticized by FACUA upon release to the market. Subsequently, with the entry into force of the new Consumer Protection Improvement Law in March 2007, it began to charge per second from the first second.

Starting in June 2008, Yoigo began to open stores limited to its own brand, but not its own, but under a franchise regime.

Between January and March 2016, Yoigo, the fourth Spanish mobile telephone operator, increased its revenues by 10.6%, reaching 221 million euros, as announced by its parent company TeliaSonera.

Since June 21, 2016, it has been wholly owned by GrupoMásMÓVIL after the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) authorized the purchase of 100% of its share capital.

Coverage and technical agreements

At its launch, Yoigo only offered coverage with its own 3G network in nine cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Cuenca, Seville, Málaga, Cádiz and Palma de Mallorca). Since the fourth quarter of 2011, Yoigo also has its own 2G network. In 2G it operates in the 1800MHz band and offers EDGE technology. Its 3G network operates in the 2100 MHz band and allows HSPA+ speeds. Since July 2013, Yoigo has offered its LTE (4G) service in certain areas of the national territory through the 1800 MHz band.

The agreement reached by Yoigo and Pepephone for Pepephone customers to use Yoigo's 4G network was frustrated, due to Movistar's refusal to reuse its data network for other MVNOs through Yoigo.

In 2022, the total mobile coverage of the MásMóvil Group, to which Yoigo belongs, reached 98.5% of the Spanish population. and, in 2021, it had fiber coverage for 26 million homes in Spain.

Provision of coverage through other networks

Upon leaving, Yoigo had a national roaming agreement with Vodafone that guaranteed access to its GSM network until 2012, which offered coverage in 99% of the national territory, which significantly extended the area and quality of coverage., although internet access under Vodafone coverage was limited to GPRS speeds (theoretical maximum of 64 Kbps).

Therefore, some services that require the greater capacity and speed of the 3G network, such as fast internet access, were limited to users who had Yoigo 3G coverage. Customers who wanted to access the internet in Vodafone coverage could do so, but using GPRS access with lower bandwidth. Currently Yoigo extends its network in large population centers, although the speed of expansion is limited by the impediments that local corporations put in place when installing new antennas.^{[citation required]} Even so, Yoigo, through Ericsson, is rapidly expanding its network.^{[citation needed]}

On March 11, 2008, a new agreement for five years of national roaming between Yoigo and Movistar was made public, similar to the one already existing with Vodafone, but which as of June 2008 allows Yoigo customers to use the networks GSM and UMTS from the country's first operator by number of clients. The agreement allowed the use of the Movistar network throughout the national territory, including the HSDPA protocol, but it was not guaranteed that the maximum data transfer speed was that supported by this standard. According to Xataka Móvil, the agreement with Vodafone will remain in force, although the connection through Movistar is prioritized.

On February 21, 2011, Yoigo made public that it will continue using Movistar's mobile network until 2014 to provide service to customers who were not covered by its own network.

On August 1, 2013, the national roaming agreement through which Yoigo had Movistar's 2G and 3G networks extended its validity period until 2016.

Since the end of 2016 and after the acquisition of Yoigo by the MásMóvil Group, the migration of national roaming to the Orange network begins.

Agreements to share infrastructure or locations

In July 2007, Yoigo signed an agreement to share the sites of its antennas with its rival Movistar. The site-sharing agreement includes permission for each operator to install their UMTS antennas in the sites rented by the other, and will allow both reduce their rental costs; But this agreement did not imply that Yoigo subscribers would use Movistar coverage or network services. In January 2008, the signing of a similar site-sharing agreement with the operator Orange was made public.

In 2013 Yoigo reached an agreement with Movistar for Yoigo to use Movistar's ADSL network and Fiber Optic. This agreement entailed a sanction from the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) for understanding that these were practices contrary to the Law for the Defense of Competition (LDC).

4G network expansion project

In 2015 Yoigo began work to expand its 4G coverage network in order to be able to offer its services to around 80% of the Spanish population by May 2016, with an investment of 25 million euros. With this, Yoigo planned to reach 1,163 Spanish municipalities with its 4G technology, reaching 7.5 million more inhabitants.

Fiber optic implementation project

In February 2017, Yoigo deployed fiber optics with convergent rate offers to offer its customers the possibility of contracting Internet at home. Currently, the figure amounts to 13.6 million self-deployed and 24.4 million marketable homes in total, including the agreement with Orange and the 39 provinces available with the NEBA offer. Considering the agreement with Vodafone that will add close to 1 million homes before the end of the year, the MASMOVIL Group's own FTTH network reaches 13.6 million homes (56% of its current total footprint). and its network 4G mobile covers 98.5% of the Spanish population.

Brand positioning

At Yoigo it claims to base its commercial strategy on "simplicity, effectiveness and low cost" and on the absence of fine print to try to differentiate itself from its competitors. It seeks to define itself as "simple, fair, ingenious, honest and effective". Its advertising is simple, and uses children's voices and phrases such as "true truth" or "good truth" to gain consumer trust. In December 2014, Yoigo carried out a change in its brand positioning in which the differences compared to the rest of the operators stand out.

Currently, Yoigo has presented a new brand positioning, more focused on the customer and the reasons why they choose one operator and not another, called “I think, therefore Yoigo”.

Likewise, its logo is presented in several versions of different colors to indicate its different character from the rest of the operators, which - always according to Yoigo's advertising - "are only differentiated by color."

Yoigo logos

Recognitions

According to the latest P3 Connect report (2017), the Yoigo network obtains a 29 out of 30 in Operational Excellence and reliability of its network. According to the British consulting firm OpenSignal (November 2017), the Yoigo mobile network is a leader market in 3G and 4G latencies.

According to the British consulting firm OpenSignal (November 2017), Yoigo's mobile network is the market leader in 3G and 4G latencies. On the other hand, according to the latest report by Tutela (December 2017), a Canadian company expert in measuring network quality with customer experience, Yoigo is the national leader in mobile data speed (3G and 4G aggregate).

According to the latest 2019 study by nPerf, an independent French consulting firm, the MASMOVIL Group's fiber network is the fastest and most efficient.

Reviews

From before 2014

When Yoigo was launched on the market, at the end of 2006, the CMT forced the operator to have more than one rate and not to impose mandatory minimum consumption, so there are secondary rates without minimum consumption that do not receive advertising. The difficulties in contracting the new rates caused Yoigo to receive complaints from FACUA (these rates are no longer available).

Until December 2007, the change from the prepayment modality to the contract or vice versa presented technical difficulties, motivating the consumer association FACUA to present a claim to Yoigo for this reason. Once the technical problems were solved, this procedure was completed. can be carried out at any Yoigo store or by calling Yoigo customer service.

In October 2008, among other new features, the possibility of accessing the Internet through HSDPA was added (previously only UMTS and GPRS were available).^{[citation needed]}

On the other hand, the limitation of free calls was announced in January 2008, which caused great surprise and discontent among customers, with a notable impact on digital media.

Several consumer associations, such as FACUA or the Union of Spanish Consumers in Asturias, filed complaints against Yoigo in 2008 for various reasons.

The Company treats clients as a matter of company policy. If you do not want to be addressed as a person, it must be expressly requested.^{[citation required]}

In 2013, Movistar complained that with the new "Infinitas" from Yoigo, were overloading the Movistar Móvil line.^{[citation required]}

With the implementation of its new 4G network, there were Yoigo terminals that suffered some errors in notifications from various applications such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. The problem was a delay in receiving instant notifications, requiring adjustments to the network configuration. This circumstance reported to Yoigo motivated the making of the necessary adjustments and those technical errors were resolved.^{[citation required]}

On the other hand, according to FACUA, during 2007 Yoigo received a total of 9.3% of complaints related to mobile telephony with less than 1% market share. Since 2012, it is the fourth company behind Vodafone, Movistar and Orange to receive complaints according to FACUA, with only 2.9% of complaints. That said, it should be noted that it is the Spanish telephone company with its own network that receives the fewest complaints. Since July 2008, the missed call service via SMS began to be offered. Regarding Internet access, the Huawei modem is marketed E220 not free, associated with a contract with a data rate different from the usual one.

Yoigo was the only mobile telephone operator in Spanish territory that limited the use of VoIP applications; such as Viber or Skype, although as of April 2012 it was allowed with an additional rate that includes up to 100MB for this type of applications, thus allowing these types of calls to be made. As of May 2015, all contract rates except Tarifa Del Cero 1.2 GB allow VoIP calls.^{[citation required]}

Since August 2014, all Yoigo mobile phones can be unlocked and, in addition, the devices are unlocked at the time of sale. However, to unlock Yoigo mobile terminals in the past, you had to meet the minimum conditions established to obtain the unlock code: having purchased the mobile with a contract line, having fulfilled the permanence commitment and continuing to belong to the company at the time of your request. Failure to comply with the previous conditions makes it impossible to obtain.