Business

La Reconquista continues - Spain's Telefonica Moviles making inroads in Latin America

HISPANICVISTA - May 7, 2001 - Telefonica Moviles had a client base of 22.846 million customers at the end of the first quarter of 2001. Including the customers of the operators managed by Telefonica Moviles in Chile, Puerto Rico and Mexico, the number of clients under TEM management was more than 25.2 million.

The client base of Telefonica Moviles had a year-on-year increase of 43.8%, from 15.884 million at 31 March 2000. A growth of more than one million clients was registered during the first quarter of 2001.

By geographical areas, Telefonica Moviles España (the domestic Spanish operator) had 14.246 million clients at 31 March 2001, reflecting an increase of 38.84% from a year earlier and a growth of 577,000 clients in the first three months of 2001.

The operating companies of Telefonica Moviles in Latin America had more than 8.022 million clients, for an increase of 37.24% over the March, 2000 figures.

During the first three months of 2001, these companies added more than 366,000 new clients.

The volume of growth during the first quarter of the current year is the result of a policy of selective growth applied by the company in light of regulatory, technological and economic uncertainties, as announced in the report of full-year 2000 results.

Telefonica Moviles is one of the ten leading mobile phone companies in the world, with operations in 14 countries and a potential market of 434 million inhabitants.

The company, which aspires to become one of the top five mobile operators worldwide, is already a leader in the growth markets of Spain and Latin American and is carrying out a strategy of selective expansion in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.