Maybe you remember. Or not. It depends on how many springs you spend.

The truth is that once upon a time, the start of Christmas in Spain was not marked by Abel Caballero pressing the button of an XXL tree with more Led lights than Disneyland. “Welcome everyone here!” No. In the ’90s, we learned that the holidays were approaching, because commercial breaks on television began to be filled with gold and burgundy reflective spots and the jingle of bells. There were those of Freixenet, AntiuXixona, the “bald man from the lottery”, El Almendro and perhaps the dean of the dean, Famosa dolls.

Also “Hello, I’m Edu, Merry Christmas!” end of 1997.

If your memory plays tricks on you – or even if you weren’t born – nothing will happen. After all, his script fits on a napkin. Basically, it was showing us that a six- or seven-year-old boy was lying on a couch calling half of Spain to celebrate his holiday, and a voice-over in the background was selling us the benefits of a recent promotion from the telephone operator. .

Time for change… and expectations

If only that were the case, it would be the grace of the spotlight and perhaps deserve discreet mention in Spanish advertising history. Simple, fun and affectionate. Stain. Beyond Edu’s catchy slogan, interesting background For homeland contact history.

The advertised firm was Airtel, the second Spanish operator to emerge just a few years ago to break Telefónica’s monopoly on mobile telephony. To be more precise, the digital system OSM (Groppe Special Mobile) is the most advanced in the field.

Like Edu’s Christmas greetings, Airtel today offers little more than nostalgia; But is it worth it remember your story: How your brand was born, grown and swallowed.

Airtel’s origins date back almost to the early 1990s, one of the most important chapters in Spanish telephony history: the liberalization of the national mobile telephone, which until then had a monopoly held by Telefónica. Some time ago they faced a similar process in other parts of Europe such as the UK, Germany or neighboring Portugal.

Here in Spain, prospects were optimistic, though certainly far from what mobile telephony would assume. in the 90s -remember pioneer— It was predicted that the national market would eventually be saturated. eight million users. Telefónica’s Moviline had analogue technology but had half a million customers.

More or less the prospects were juicy enough to attract the attention of two major proposals: that of the Cometa SRM consortium, a BBV-led group, and the Airtel-Sistelcom-Reditel consortium, a major conglomerate that includes Airtouch and BT Group. or Central Hispano and Santander banks, among other large firms. The award went to the second.

In 1995, the authorization to provide mobile telephony service was obtained: it became operational in October and had 15,000 customers by the end of the year. With the headline “Airtel ends Telefónica’s monopoly” Countrywhich highlights what a change of scenery the old company faced seventy years later.

In the following years, he managed to get a juicy slice of the Spanish communication pie. In 1996 it already had 652,000 customers and a year later about 1.2 million subscribers were expected. In 1998 the market share approached 31% and the company started to make a profit. The script wasn’t all bad either: once upon a time land phoneIn December 1998 Airtel obtained a license for this type of network.

Ironically, the brand Edu so gracefully advertised in 1997 had three newsletters left. Reason? business movements, ownership changes and expansion plans for foreign markets. In 1999, Vodafone Group acquired Airtouch, one of the companies controlling Airtel, acquiring 21.7% of the Spanish operator. He soon succeeded in expanding his control a little further, increasing it to 74% after Brussels’ approval in 2000.

In 2001 Vodafone Group owned 91.6% of the company, which was a great cruise ship for expansion. In February, the British multinational company already announced its intention to rename Airtel to “Airtel Vodafone”; this philosophy was also applicable to companies in other countries under the control of the British operator, and soon the old local banner disappeared completely and was replaced by the much more corporate “Vodafone Spain”. Vodafone maintained the registration of the Airtel brand for several years, yes, until 2017, when it stopped renewing it.

Not being able to follow will eventually become a burden to him.

And accidentally leaving an intriguing episode In the history of Airtel.

The “orphan” of the old brand, which is so well known in the Spanish market, attracted the attention of a group of businessmen who wanted to revive it. The brand returned to advertising in 2020 with a marketing move worthy of Berlanga… Only without any ties to Vodafone. The new person responsible for exploiting this was a small company from Albacete, an OMV that took advantage of the situation to get its name and logo. And of course make your traction profitable.

“It’s not the same Airtel. The brand is really coming back, it’s not Vodafone that launched it.” : “Airtel is back!!! It has come back again by eliminating the monopoly of Telefónica, which was known by many of you as the Second National Operator in the 90s, and adapting to new technologies.”

In 2020, one of its directors told Xataka Movil, “We saw the Vodafone brand not be renewed, we saw it and brought it to light. We did nothing that cannot be done. I want to deceive anyone, we are not Vodafone”. Vodafone did not like this move one bit, which soon activated its legal mechanism: “Registering and using Vodafone’s distinctive elements constitutes both a trademark and copyright infringement.”

The Albacete renaissance of the former operator in the ’90s would not last long. Earlier this year, it was reported that the OMV website (Airtel5g.es) has been inactive for months and even its accounts on social networks have been closed. In June, Banda Ancha went a little further and Vodafone’s reclaimed property of your brand.

Not bad code for one of the historic flags of Spanish telephony.

Edu, meanwhile, would still wish us Christmas years later, but now with a beard and nodding on behalf of another company. change of time and market.