After learning yesterday that the first green shoots are beginning to appear at Vodafone following the entry of Zegona and the appointment of José Miguel García as CEO, today it is time to look at one of its main rivals. Movistar’s performance in recent months has been really positive and in June it achieved a milestone not seen since 2018. Movistar and O2 have achieved a positive balance of portability in fixed and mobile for the first time in 6 years.
The normal thing over the last 6 years has been to talk about the loss of customers suffered by Movistar month after month. The blue operator, with a few exceptions and periods (return of football, Christmas, etc.) has always had new losses in mobile, landline or both. However, the good work of the management team headed by Emilio Gayo is starting to bear fruit.
Movistar and O2 like a shot
In an ultra-competitive landscape of companies and prices, Movistar and O2 have achieved something that has not been seen since 2018. The sum of the new additions of both brands, minus the losses suffered, shows a positive balance. Although we do not have the exact figures, we have been able to learn first-hand that they have grown in fixed and mobile customers in the month of June 2024.
And that is something, as we have already mentioned, that has not happened for 6 years. Specifically, Telefónica had not been in the green in fixed and mobile since 2018. Occasionally it had grown in mobile some months and in fixed some other months, but never in both markets at the same time.
Current offers and what’s coming
And all this is the result of the current way of working at both Movistar and O2. Right now, at Movistar we have several offers to get a 10% discount on miMovistar or 1 Gbps fibre for 35.90 euros. There has also been a commitment to unlimited data by lowering its price and increasing the reduced speed to 2 Mbps.
In the case of O2, the rate of 30 euros for 300 megabytes and 10 gigabytes has been fixed, and several fairly well-balanced intermediate price plans are offered. What we do not see at the moment is that O2 is going to enter the 20 euro war that Digi proposed and that Lowi responded to with its fit fibre a few weeks ago.
As if that were not enough, the good performance of portability for Telefónica comes just when we are about to start a new football season. Historically, these have been good months for Movistar and there is no reason to think that they will not be again. This year, too many changes are expected with respect to the previous season.
