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Spain Telecommunications Report Q1 2008Product Type: Market Research ReportPublished by: Business Monitor International Published: January 2008 Product Code: R302-1840 Description By the end of September 2007, there were 49.054mn mobile subscribers in the Spanish mobile market,with the sector having grown by just 4.3% in the first nine months of 2007. Based on expectations ofreasonably strong growth in the fourth quarter, BMI estimates that there were 50.046mn in the market atthe end of the year; this is equivalent to a mobile penetration rate of 113.9%. Despite the extremely highmobile penetration rate, we believe that penetration will continue to edge upwards, with 56mn mobilesubscribers at the end of 2012, helping to push up penetration to 124.5%. Meanwhile, we have revised ourforecast figures for growth of Spain’s 3G market. We believe that out of the total number of 3G ‘devices’reported by Vodafone, and the mobile broadband customers reported by Orange, only a fraction of theseare actually 3G subscribers. We estimate that there were 3.819mn 3G customers at the end of 2007, whichis equivalent to 7.6% of total mobile users, and which is a significantly lower number than we hadpreviously predicted. We predict that more than 11% of mobile users will be using 3G services by the endof 2008, and that this proportion will increase to almost 27% of the market by the end of 2012.In October 2007, it was reported that Europe’s biggest mobile-phone company, Vodafone, had acquiredthe Spanish and Italian operations of Swedish operator Tele2, for EUR775mn. In Spain, the deal givesVodafone access to Tele2 Spain’s broadband subscriber base, which was reportedly 203,635 at the end ofJune 2007, making it Spain’s fifth-largest broadband provider. Spain’s broadband market appears to havegrown by 24% in 2007, and we predict a further 19.7% increase in broadband subscribers in 2008. By theend of 2012, we predict that there will be over 16.4mn broadband customers, which will be equivalent to36.4% penetration. In September 2007, Clearwire Espana became the latest company to enter Spain’sbroadband market with the launch of a WiMAX offering in Seville.Also in October 2007, it was confirmed that Spanish Telefónica and a group of Italian financialheavyweights had completed their long-awaited EUR4.1bn (US$5.8bn) takeover of Italian incumbentTelecom Italia, The acquisition of a 23.6%-controlling stake in Telecom Italia by Telco, a holdingcompany comprising Telefónica and four major Italian financial investors, was expected to bring to anend a period of limbo which has affected the Italian incumbent. In a filing to the Spanish marketregulator, Telefónica has said it will pay EUR2.3mn (US$3.29mn) for a 42.3% stake in Telco. This willgive Telefónica 10% of the share capital, with voting rights in Telecom Italia. Table of Contents
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