Telefonica de Espana is to invest some $470m in modernising its mobile phone infrastructures. The investment follows forecast growth in demand, which has grown from 4,200 subscribers in December 1987 to an expected 60,000 subscribers for this year, double that by the end of next year, and as many as 700,000 by 1995. Telefonica will spend $163.5m to expand its TMA 900A 900MHz service, recently introduced in Madrid, home of 30% of all cellular subscribers to enable it to handle 100,000 subscribers by the end of this financial year. TMA 900A will also help to improve the quality of communications, particularly in areas that are highly congested, as well as offering features like portable and pocket phones. Telefonica also plans to extend TMA 900A to Barcelona, Seville, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Zaragoza, Cadiz and the Balearics by the end of this year. Cellualar service was first offered in Spain in 1982 with just 85 users – now it is implemented in 47 provinces and has nearly 30,000 subscribers. With imminent switchover of Huesca, Zamora and Soria, the service will cover the whole of Spain and total investment will reach $121.4m. And it must now start all over again with pan-European digital cellular service.
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