There are now an estimated 150,000 Internet users in Spain, managing director of Madrid-based Goya Servicios Telematicos SA Juan Antonio Esteban told Computerworld Espana. He claims that his is the only company that currently offers businesses in Spain the means to access the Internet: while Telefonica de Espana SA has an X400 electronic mail system, it does not as yet offer connection to Internet. Goya evolved from an academic project. A group of individuals at the Madrid Telecommunications School became interested in Internet, and when a professor contacted an association in Europe and succeeded in bringing the service to Spanish universities, they decided to form a company to offer the service at a professional level. Thus was founded Goya Servicios Telematicos, backed 100% by Spanish capital and envisaged purely as a services company. It has now been operating for some 18 months, and turnover is relatively modest, running at around $333,000 a year. According to Esteban, Goya’s most important product is its InterEUnet, an electronic mail system that integrates text and images, and provides connection to the 20m Internet users worldwide. Universities and public research centres do not require Goya’s services, since they receive a free state-funded connection via the network known as Red Iris, managed by the Higher Centre of Scientific Research. Goya acts as the go-between for businesses and associations that cannot gain access via Red Iris, offering the software, service, support and maintenance to connect to the Internet.
