Retevisión was aSpanish telecommunications company; of which a portion of it continues to exist asCellnex Telecom, which was spun off fromAbertis in 2015.
Retevisión was founded in 1989 as apublic company, a division of the national public broadcasterRadiotelevisión Española (RTVE). Its original mission was to provide transmission facilities for television and radio signals throughout Spain.
In 1996, theFirst Aznar government of thePeople's Party decided to liberalise the Spanish telecommunications market, and a license was granted to Retevisión.
In 1997, it was decided to move the company headquarters fromMadrid toBarcelona. That same year Retevisión was acquired byTelecom Italia and the Spanish electricity utilitiesEndesa andUnion Fenosa.
The company was operating without its own landline network, and users ofTelefónica that were Retevision subscribers needed to prepend the prefix 050, which was later replaced by 1050, to the number in order to route calls to Retevisión.
At first, customers could only call other provinces with Retevisión. With the liberalisation of thelocal loop in September 1998, Retevisión customers could make local calls.
That same year, Retevisión bought two pioneering Spanishinternet service providers Servicom andRedesTB, and launched their own ISP under the brandiddeo.
In June 1998 the company obtained Spain's third license formobile telephony (afterMovistar andAirtel Móviles), and began operations in 1999 under the brand nameAmena through its subsidiaryRetevisión Móvil.
Throughout 1999 it also launched data services over IP for enterprises (VPN networking sites), and direct voice and data by radio link, although the latter services had little success.
In Summer 2000, iddeo launchedADSL services for businesses.
In theBasque Country,Euskaltel from its launch in 1995 retained its distribution exclusivity versus Retevisión therefore fixed telephony and the transmission of radio and television signals was performed by Euskaltel.
The brand Retevisión as a telephony operator was abandoned in 2002 in favour of the new name Auna, a merger between Retevisión and the cable operatorAunaCable (both companies being part ofGrupo Auna). In 2005, the cable television, fixed telephony and ISP portions of Auna were absorbed by the operatorONO. In 2006,France Télécom acquired the mobile telephony operations of Amena, which led to the creation ofOrange España on 1 August that same year.[1][2]
Retevisión's remaining audiovisual-related portfolio was then sold by Grupo Auna to Abertis in 2003, which subsequently spun off that particular business into a new company called Cellnex Telecom in 2015.
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