3 The telecommunications market in Spain has experienced many changes over the past year. According to a specialized consulting firm, the sector has seen investments and revenues totalling approximately USD12.8 billion where USD7.3 billion belongs to basic telephony, USD5.4 billion to mobile telephony and USD500 million to data transmission in 1999.
Cable industry represents a low value given the slow development of cable infrastructure in Spain.
Important growth is expected in the cable and data transmission markets. The mobile telephony market will continue growing steadily although moderate growth is expected once the market matures. Growth is expected in the fixed telephony market although at a slow pace. Telefonica, the former state-owned company, is still the leading company in the market. Industry experts expect that this sector will grow slowly mainly because the market has already reached a level of 16 million fixed lines installed.