AMENA is back and offering a low-cost package both for mobile phone customers who need internet access and for those who use their handsets just for text messages and calls.

Orange, the 'mother' company in Spain and trading name of France Télécom, has re-launched the brand nearly six years after it was scrapped and merged with the main Orange 'label', in a bid to increase loyalty and seek out further customers.

No contract commitments are involved and no get-out payments are due if the customer changes his or her mind, and all admnistration is online, says the company.

Manager for amena.com, Jesús Noguera, says fees are 19 euros per month plus IVA for unlimited calls and text messages – a total of 22.42 euros – or 29 euros plus IVA to include unlimited internet surfing, being a total of 34.22 euros per month.

It includes 3,600 minutes – 30 hours – of free calls to 150 destinations, 1,000 text messages to 100 destinations and unlimited internet use of up to one gigabyte (1GB) per month.

Once the internet limit is used up, the customer can continue to surf the net up to a limit of 64 kilobytes (KB) per second.

Outside of the destinations and period of time stated, the cost per call is eight cents per minute plus 15 cents for connecting the call, and text messages are 15 cents each.

VOIP applications – such as Skype – are also permitted within the monthly fee.

No seasonal promotions nor 'X months of free calls' followed by extortionate monthly tariffs are involved – the fees stated are effective from the minute the customer signs up to the minute they decide to go elsewhere, says Noguera.

Mobile phone and SmartPhone customers now have far more choice than just a few years ago, when only one or two companies held a near-monopoly and uncompetitive tariffs were on a 'like-it-or-lump-it' basis – if the customer was not happy, he or she had no choice but to continue to pay or simply cease using the mobile phone.

Poor coverage, abusive contract clauses and commitments, and high monthly fees were something mobile phone users just had to put up with, because there was no room to negotiate, no special packages available and little to be gained from moving to the few other companies in existence.

But Spain's main mobile providers – including Yoigo, Orange, Movístar, and Vodafone – are beginning to move with the times and respond to customers' needs and demands, whilst other, independent networks are constantly appearing and attempting to compete in the telephony market.