Mobile News

Like its neighbour Portugal, Spain has always been a strong prepaid market. So much so, that the third operator, Amena, launched with a prepaid service first. By end-2000, 77% of Amena’s customers used prepaid services and prepaid accounted for 65% of the total Spanish mobile market.

In early 1999, Amena introduced an innovative prepaid pack called Duo with two mobiles and a unique tariff between the two numbers of US$0.03/min for life. The user then chooses another tariff for the rest of the calls. This is an excellent example of targeting a very specific market segment–this time it is couples. After a vigorous multimedia campaign in the first two months after launch, Amena reported that the Duo product represented 30% of that month’s prepaid sales. By December 1999, Duo had become one of the best selling products generating customer loyalty, as users can keep the cheap tariff throughout their prepaid life!