O2’s great asset against low cost is to give more than what it promises

When O2 landed in Spain, back in 2018, it did so with a single mobile alternative and a single convergent offer. In addition to unlimited calls and 20 GB of data, the latter offered 100 Mbps symmetrical fiber, but several customers soon found that, actually O2 was giving them triple the speed (300 Mbps), something that Serrahima himself acknowledged to us in an interview.

Now, as Movilonia anticipated and we have been able to verify from Xataka Móvil, something similar is happening with the mobile network. O2 offers Movistar coverage with 4G/4G+ speed and that is what appears in the details of its rates, but it has been months since O2 customers are enjoying 5G in those areas where Telefónica has already deployed it.

Outside of the premium brands, only Jazztel gives 5G

During the O2 testing period, several users verified that the speed received, even by WiFi, It was triple the contracted: They paid for a rate of 100 Mbps and got just over 300 symmetrical Mbps. That was not something exclusive to the testing phase, but rather, after its commercial launch, more and more customers appeared who claimed to be enjoying 300 megabytes.

In an interview with Pedro Serrahima, the Director of New Brands at Telefónica did not want to deny it, he simply told us that what O2 put in the contract was 100 symmetrical megabytes and people who had 300 were paying for 100. The curious thing is that not all customers enjoyed this advantage, so the theories to explain it ranged from a marketing strategy to a method to avoid the sanction of the CNMC.

Now that we’re deep into the 5G rollout, it looks like the “deliver more than you promise” story is repeating itself with O2. In its mobile and combined rates, the Telefónica operator offers Movistar coverage, but in the conditions of service and on the support page set at most 4G/4G+ speedalways depending on the access terminal, the coverage area, the application used and the network load situation.

Luckily for its users, months ago O2 customers are enjoying 5G in those areas where Telefónica has already deployed it and whenever they have a terminal compatible with the latest generation networks.

Taking into account its main competition, 5G can be a great asset for O2: Lowi and Pepephone do not offer it at the moment and other MVNOs such as DIGI or Finetwork do not offer it either. The only one that has done something similar is Jazztel, which without making an official announcement, also has 5G coverage on the mobile lines of its convergent pack since last November.