MADRID - Spain's telecoms watchdog CMT said on Friday that 66 percent of net new broadband customers signed up with companies other than dominant operator Telefonica between February and April.

The net number of new broadband connections was 158,800 in the period. Within April, Telefonica only won a 17 percent slice of all new broadband connections to households on a net basis.

Internet penetration via broadband and cable stood at 20.1 percent at the end of the three-month period, the CMT said, with Telefonica dominating with nearly 56 percent market share.

In mobile telephony there were also more new customers for smaller operators such as Yoigo, part of the Telia Sonera group, the CMT said. Yoigo won 56.4 percent of new mobile custom in the three-month period, while Telefonica saw a net loss of custom.

In April alone, the number of fixed lines shrank for the tenth month running. Fixed lines fell 115,751 to 19.8 million, with corporate lines down 6.4 percent year-on-year.

The number of mobile phones rose 4.8 percent to 51.68 million year on year in April.

Yoigo was also the company most people switched to in April alone, adding 30,000 customers while Vodafone lost nearly 35,000 clients and Telefonica more than 5,000.

In terms of market share in mobiles at the end of April, Telefonica had an almost 44 percent share, virtually unchanged since March, while Vodafone had 31 percent and Orange just over 20 percent.

(Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary; editing by Mike Nesbit)

Broadband