Just five or six years ago, Spanish households used to save nearly 10,000 pesetas a month on cell phone calls compared to today. At the end of the 20th century, few Spaniards had mobile phones and thus did not spend much money on this kind of communication. That is different today. Market penetration is about 90 per cent and the Arpu (average consumption per user per month) is around 30 euros.

Something similar can be said of the Internet. In the late 1990s the Internet had limited presence in Spanish homes. In other words, no one had the opportunity to spend the nearly 40 euros a month that unlimited use ADSL account costs, with taxes included. 

Unlike the previous examples, spending on land-line phone calls has gone down somewhat from a decade ago, even though the main company in the sector (Telef�nica de Espa�a has no reduced its monthly fee, as many customers had expected it would. Unfortunately, the discounts cover services that are less generally used by the broad public, such as international calls. These are indeed a lot cheaper than they were six years ago. 

In any case, the deregulation of hte Spanish telecommunications market has helped lower prices and enrich supply, especially in areas where cable is functioning. It is in areas where cable is up and running that prices are lower. Companies like Ono, Auna and Uni2 offer telecommunications services with their own networks and prices 10 to 30% cheaper on some kinds of calls. 

Auna is offering free local calls until the end of the year. Ono is doing something similar, letting customers talk to each other as long as they want if they have accounts with the company. Through August 31 Telef�nica de Espa�a is offering a special price of 15 euro cents per call to anywhere in Spain. The price includes the placing of the call, its metropolitan, provincial and interprovincial connections and covers the reduced-rate period for up to 30 minutes of conversation. The offer is also compatible with discounts customers already have with the company. You can sign up by calling the L�nea de Atenci�n Personal (1004) and at telefonicaonline.com.

In the next few years, if complaints filed by consumer groups succeed Spaniards will see cell phone rates come down slightly for voice services. The Federation of Consumers in Action (Facua) estimates that in 2002 the three cell phone companies (Movistar, Vodafone and Amena) took in 1.175 billion euros by rounding up calling times. This is equivalent to 20 pc of their total revenue. Revenue from data (short text messages, downloading music, games or sending photos) will increase the bill of those users who are willing to pay for certain applications of value added.