Yoigo, the Spanish mobile-phone unit of Sweden’s TeliaSonera AB (TLSN), is aiming for more than 3 million customers this year by attracting clients with low prices,

Yoigo, the Spanish mobile-phone unit of Sweden’s TeliaSonera AB (TLSN), is aiming for more than 3 million customers this year by attracting clients with low prices, Chief Executive Officer Johan Andsjo said.

“We have already started a price war,” Andsjo said in an interview yesterday at his office in Madrid, where the company is based. “Spain is still the most expensive European country in terms of rates and it’s obvious that amid the current macroeconomic crisis people switch operators to save money.”

Yoigo targets a 10 percent market share in 2015, up from 4.3 percent in February, Andsjo said. Yoigo aims for positive cash flow this year and will open 100 stores during the first half, he said. There were 55 million mobile customers in Spain in February and Telefonica SA (TEF), Spain’s biggest phone company, had more than 41 percent of the market through its Movistar unit, according to the country’s phone regulator.

Yoigo was the mobile operator with the biggest increase in clients swapping providers while keeping their old phone numbers in February. It had a net gain of 35,867 customers, while Movistar was the biggest loser with a net 42,623 decline.

Yoigo, which was founded in 2006, had 2.3 million customers last year and during the first three months of 2011 it grew “at a similar pace to a year earlier,” the 38-year-old executive said. Last year’s sales climbed 46 percent to 5.98 billion Swedish kronor ($948 million) as Yoigo added 777,000 customers, the company said. The company, which charges at little as 4 cents a minute for calls, has more than 1,000 stores in Spain.

Sustainable Growth

The strategy for growth is “sustainable” in the long term because it’s based in cheap prices, the executive said. Yoigo also wants to expand mobile data usage, and expects its revenue from this service to grow 200 percent this year through the use of wireless modems and smartphones, he said.

Yoigo will increase coverage from 67 percent of Spain’s population to 74 percent and boost speed to 21 megabits per second, the executive said, declining to say how much the company plans to invest this year.

TeliaSonera, Sweden’s biggest phone company, holds a 77 percent stake in Yoigo and has said the unit is now integral to its strategy after previously putting it up for sale.

TeliaSonera’s change of heart “is due to our good results,” Andsjo said. “They now understand and clearly see that we’re making a positive contribution to the group.”