Digi devours spanish telecom rivals: orange bleeding customers

Spain’s telecom landscape is undergoing a seismic shift, and the tremors are shaking the foundations of established giants. DIGI, the Romanian-born operator, has surged to become the fourth-largest player, relentlessly poaching customers from Orange and leaving the once-dominant provider reeling. The numbers tell a stark story of disruption and a rapidly changing market dynamic.

Orange suffers a mass exodus

The culprit? A potent combination of DIGI’s aggressively low pricing and Orange’s apparent failure to resonate with consumers seeking budget-friendly options. DIGI has capitalized brilliantly, registering record portability numbers throughout 2025. Orange is bearing the brunt of this customer flight, losing ground at an alarming rate.

Consider this: over 530,000 customers jumped ship from MasOrange (the result of the Orange and MásMóvil merger) to DIGI last year alone. That represents a staggering two out of every three portabilities – a clear indication of the operator's vulnerability. MasOrange’s woes are compounded by the fact that it lost 3.6 times more customers to DIGI than Vodafone did.

Vodafone isn't exactly celebrating, either. The Zegona-backed group saw a net loss of 148,000 lines, also attributed to DIGI's relentless advance. While Telefónica (Movistar) has managed to weather the storm relatively well – benefiting from its entrenched customer base and higher average revenue per user (ARPU) exceeding €90 per month – even it hasn’t been entirely immune. Movistar and its low-cost subsidiary O2 shed a net 67,000 mobile lines to DIGI in 2025.

A strategy of simplification and price wars

The key to DIGI’s success appears to be a ruthless replication of MásMóvil’s past low-cost strategy, but with even more aggressive pricing and remarkably straightforward tariffs. While MasOrange’s complexity— juggling multiple brands like MásMóvil, Yoigo, Pepephone, Simyo, and Lebara—may have contributed to its confusion and vulnerability, Telefónica’s O2 is attempting a counter-strategy with an offering priced at €35, significantly higher than DIGI’s entry-level tariffs starting around €13.

Movistar Plus+ recently launched a free plan, bundling programs, series, and even Champions League matches—a brazen attempt to deflect attention from DIGI’s rising tide. But the question remains: can even a free offering compete with the sheer value proposition of DIGI’s ultra-low prices? The battle for the Spanish telecom market is far from over, and the current trajectory suggests that the disruptor, DIGI, is only just beginning to flex its muscles.