Yoigo

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 2000¹, and had a turbulent start. From its creation, it was owned primarily by TeliaSonera (now Telia Company), and since 21 June 2016 is now the sole property of Grupo MásMóvil, after the CNMC (regulator agency like Federal Communications Commission in Spain) authorised the purchase of 100% of its share capital.

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. From its creation, it was owned primarily by TeliaSonera (now Telia Company), and since 21 June 2016 is now the sole property of Grupo MásMóvil, after the CNMC (regulator agency like Federal Communications Commission in Spain) authorised the purchase of 100% of its share capital. ==History== Originally the carrier was to be called Xfera, a name reflected in its currently registered name of Xfera Móviles, SA. It was formed in 2001¹ 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. 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.

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