Nearly 9 million numbers were ported in Spain in the past year, and Masmovil again won the most customers through porting. According to figures seen by El Pais, Masmovil won around 263,000 mobile lines and 204,000 fixed connections from rivals through porting. The big operators Orange and Movistar lost together over 1 million lines through porting.
The other main winner in the past year was virtual operator Digi. It attracted 198,000 mobile and 37,500 fibre subscribers, according to the provisional figures for the sector.
The total number of portings was down slightly this year, due in part to a temporary ban on this service during the first coronavirus lockdown in the spring. In total, 6.6 million mobile lines and 2.1 million fixed and broadband lines were ported, compared to respectively 7.3 million mobile and 2.3 million fixed in 2019. That's still equal to over 10 percent of all mobile lines.
Almost all the customers won by MasMovil and Digi came from Orange, which lost 412,500 mobile lines and 35,100 broadband customers through porting, and Movistar, which shed 266,500 mobile lines and 350,400 fixed lines. Vodafone's shift in strategy appears to have paid off, as it went from the worst performance in 2019 to almost a positive balance in porting this year. It lost only 15,800 lines mobile and 2,300 fixed through porting in 2020.
Euskaltel, the regional operator that went national this year under the Virgin brand, added 47,700 mobile customers and 2,500 fibre lines through porting in 2020.
