movistar

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Movistar is a major mobile phone operator owned by Telefónica Móviles. It operates in Spain and in many Latin American countries. Many Movistar networks were acquired from BellSouth.

The Movistar name has been in use in Spain since the launch of GSM services in 1995. After purchasing Bellsouth mobile operations branch in South America, the name became effective worldwide on April 5, 2005.

After the purchase of O₂ in 2005 by Telefonican S.A., the company announced that the O₂ brand would continue to be used in the UK, Germany and the Republic of Ireland, as a separate branch with its own board and management structure. Due to the fact that Eurotel in the Czech Republic was rebranded as Telefónica Europe plc, as opposed to Telefónica Movistar, it is possible Telefónica will expand the use of the O₂ brand.

It is the biggest carrier in Spain with 22 million customers (cellphone services only) and it also has the widest coverage in Spain.^{[citation needed]} It offers GSM 900/1800 Mhz (2G) , UMTS 2100Mhz (3G) and HSDPA (3.5G) services.

1 Countries where Telefónica Móviles operates wireless networks under the Movistar brand
2 Countries where Telefónica Móviles has networks under other brands
3 Countries where Telefónica has networks under other brands
4 Trivia
5 See Also
6 External links

[edit] Countries where Telefónica Móviles operates wireless networks under the Movistar brand

Argentina (formerly Telefónica Unifón and Movicom BellSouth)
Chile (formerly Telefónica Móvil and BellSouth)
Colombia (formerly BellSouth)
Ecuador (formerly BellSouth)
El Salvador (Formerly Telefónica Móviles or Telefonica MoviStar)
Guatemala (formerly Telefónica MoviStar and BellSouth)
Mexico (formerly Cedetel, Bajacel, Movitel, Norcel and Pegaso)
Nicaragua (formerly BellSouth)
Panama (formerly BellSouth)
Peru (formerly Telefónica Móviles and BellSouth)
Spain (formerly Telefónica MoviStar)
Uruguay (formerly Movicom)
Venezuela (formerly Telcel Bellsouth)

[edit] Countries where Telefónica Móviles has networks under other brands

Brazil (formerly under Movistar in some places, now under the Vivo brand through a joint venture with Portugal Telecom)
Morocco (under Meditel Telecom brand) brand through a joint venture with Portugal Telecom, BMCE Bank and others

[edit] Countries where Telefónica has networks under other brands

Czech Republic (under the O₂ brand)
Slovakia (under the O₂ brand)
Germany (under the O₂ brand)
Republic of Ireland (under the O₂ brand)
United Kingdom (under the O₂ brand)
Isle of Man (under the Manx Telecom brand)

[edit] Trivia

The 1983 song "Walking on Sunshine" by the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 winners, Katrina and the Waves, has been used by Telefónica to announce the unification of all its operation brands (Telefonica MoviStar, Bellsouth, Unifon, Telefonica Moviles, Telefonica Movil, Movicom) in Latin America and Spain under the movistar brand. It happened after the takeover of BellSouth's Latin America division.1. movistar currently uses the New Radicals´hit "You Get What You Give" in all forms of audiovisual advertisement.

[edit] See Also

Moviline, Telefónica Móviles old analog network

v • d • e Spanish mobile operators

Main operators	movistar · Orange · Vodafone · Yoigo

Mobile Virtual Network Operators	Euskaltel · Carrefour Móvil · Dia Móvil · Happy Móvil · Pepephone · ONO io · Simyo · Telecor (El Corte Inglés)