[petkow]

Both Blau and Simyo use Orange here. They are both owned by E-Plus, which may exist in Germany too, but is actually a subsidiary of the Dutch group KPN. (Now the 4th biggest mobile operator in Europe).

Though under the same management, Blau and Simyo aim to attract different types of users. Blau hasn't really taken off that well here but I think ultimately aims to be more mainstream and therefore has a distribution network using big name chains of shops here. Simyo is aimed to be a smaller low-cost brand aimed at tech-savvy internet users. This is why it is only available online. It also has more limited customer service options, with an emphasis of doing things online.

There are also at least half a dozen other mobile brands run by KPN here in Spain which have the brand names of airlines, travel agents, banks etc. No time to list them all but most actually have half decent voice and data rates. As far as I recall one of them (Vueling Mobile) has a 1.20 Euro data cap per day (in competition to Yoigo).

To be honest, my take is that it is fairly easy to setup a new MVNO in Spain these days. For a start it doesn't cost much to do so, and secondly you can so easily poach half intelligent customers from Movistar and Vodafone Spain, as they are the biggest telecom rip-offs in Europe! These firms may still have customers for now, but only because they offer fancy SIM-locked phones for "free" and still have millions of people tied into extremely long 24 month contracts. Vodafone used to be a very professional company here with decent offers and freebies. They initially set themselves up as competition to Movistar but they have really slipped, and have just koined the same game.