The truth is that mobile telephony arrived years before, to be more exact, in 1976 with the automatic phones in vehicles (TAV). A system that allowed the use of a mobile phone inside the car, but only in provinces such as Barcelona or Madrid. Being able to carry a mobile phone everywhere was a reality in the 1990s thanks to the TMA-900the acronym that corresponds to Automatic Mobile Telephony that used the 900 MHz frequency.
It all starts in 1990
Launched on the market in 1990, it was not until 1993 that the MoviLine brand was introduced, the first mobile phone service in Spain that was not intended to be used only in a car. At the time, anyone who could afford it could get hold of a mobile with analog technology. It was registered as a trademark in 1992 under the headings of telecommunications services and as a brand of telephone sets.
During its history, this analog system made it possible to offer greater coverage than the digital one, but with poorer voice quality and without the additional services such as roaming or SMS offered by MoviStar and Airtel’s GSM technology from 1995.
Announcements of the time and rates
There are currently many more mobile lines in our country than there are inhabitants, but it was not easy for MoviLine to reach its first 300,000 customers. In one of its first advertisements we can see that, at that time, all advertising was aimed mainly at professionals for whom having a mobile phone could be a help in your business.
In the announcement there is no trace of the brands that today dominate the mobile phone market such as Apple, Samsung or LG. Among the advertised terminals we find brands that are no longer dedicated to mobile telephony such as Telyco or NEC.
On the other hand, taking into account inflation, prices are quite familiar to us and revolve around 80,000 pesetas (about 900 euros today), that is, what a high-end smartphone costs. Regarding fees, there was a fee, high fee, for which companies charged you for wanting to be their client. And we are not talking about an economic figure, but about 25,000 pesetas at that time, about 295 euros in 2022. In addition, you also had to pay a monthly fee to maintain the service that ranged from 4,500 to 18,000 pesetas (53 to 212 euros in today). As for the price per minute, the most affordable rate was 34 pesetas (40 cents). None of the prices included VAT of 15% and the minutes were paid in full, even if only a few seconds were spoken.
MoviLine closes in 2003
The award license marked the cessation of the provision of the service for January 1, 2007, however, on December 31, 2003 the news broke that it was closing, leaving 38,000 customers at that time. Users who were able to request the conservation of their number requesting the change to a msg service of the operators MoviStar, Vodafone and Amena.
Outdated and obsolete, the new technologies were able to defeat the analogical system which, 1998 and 1999I hit the ceiling reaching the million and a half customers. According to the ministry’s resolution, “analogue technology, of the so-called first generation, has been largely surpassed by the second generation digital GSM and DCS 1800, strongly deployed at the national level by the different operators, and will be even more so by the UMTS third generation systems.