During the presentation of O2 Spain a little over three years ago, Telephone affirmed that the new MVNO was coming to reinforce the medium cost segment, aimed at users looking for abundant rates at an adjusted and stable price, but without entering to compete at lower prices. And so it has been, at least until yesterday, when it was for the first time has lowered the price of access to the combined fiber and mobile phone to 30 euros.
And it is not that the minimum 30 euros is a novelty in the current market, but that this movement is carried out by Telefónica, it is not something so common, especially due to its condition of dominant operator, which can cause rivals’ response and a new revenue crash so feared by network-deploying operators.
But the users continue to demand low prices, as the data on portability shows on a monthly basis, and traditional operators have ended up responding to the minimum of 30 euros that Digi established, first by Orange with Simyo, then Vodafone with Lowi, and now Movistar with O2.
In addition, after several months improving and making the offer more flexible, O2 has completed the renewal of rates, managing to get an offer with which to make compared to the main benchmarks in low prices. To know advantages and differences, we are going to review the details of the new O2 against Lowi, Simyo, Digi, Virgin telco, Pepephone or finetwork among others.
O2 does not accumulate GB, but includes landline
Of the operators to be compared, O2 is the only one that includes free and landline SMS with unlimited calls to fixed nations and mobiles by default, but it is also the only one that does not accumulate unconsumed data so they can be consumed the following month. For the rest, the differences are becoming tighter.
Starting with the simplest combination of fiber and mobile, where O2 offers 100 Mbps and 10 GB for 30 euros, manages to improve Lowi and Digi’s offer by 2 GB, and only Simyo offers more gigs (4 GB, specifically). As a more striking exception, Digi will be the only one starting from 300 Mbps of internet speed at home.
The next O2 combo ups the ante to fiber to 300 Mbps and mobile with 25 GB for 38 euros. With the same fiber speed, Digi offers 24 GB for 34 euros, Lowi 20 GB for 34.95 euros, Simyo 25 GB for 38.99 euros, and Virgin telco 25 GB for 39 euros. Similar prices and conditions, but available under each of the four available mobile coverages.
Going up the fiber speed to 500 Mbps (which is actually 600 Mbps as noted in the fine print), O2 loses some steam with its 30 GB for 44 euros, which are improved by the 30 GB of Lowi for 39.95 euros, the 50 GB of finetwork for 44.90 euros, or the 60 GB of Digi for 42 euros with 1,000 Mbps fiber.
The cheapest combined fiber and a mobile line in force since October 2021, are as detailed in the comparative graph:
Of the rest of the novelties, we find that the new combination of 30 euros is compatible with the discount on additional mobile lines, which in this case allows adding up to four lines with 10 GB for 10 euros each, so that the O2’s cheapest family combo is now set at 40 euros, compared to 33 euros for Lowi, and 35 euros for Simyo and Digi when they are accompanied by unlimited calls on the mobile.
Although it would be expected that the aforementioned operators make adaptations in their offers to respond to the last movement of O2, where perhaps the improvement is more expected, it is in Pepephone, which usually follows closely in the footsteps of O2 and so far has not dared to reduce the price of access to the combined to 30 euros. We’ll see if it does.
Where an improvement is also most necessary is in Vodafone yu, that if it doubled the gigs that it currently includes as it did during the summer, it would be more at the height of the new O2. We will remain attentive to find out who are the first to react.