facing

Few companies become hundred. Of those who achieve it, few have survived as many transformations as Telefónica. Founded when the phone was a luxury, a civil war, world war, dictatorships, democracies, republics and monarchies, privatizations, technological bubbles and digital revolutions has lived. But He has never faced a crossroads as existential as the current: Define your identity for the next century. He Mobile World Congress 2025 It has been the scenario where Marc Murtra, in his first months as president, has presented his vision for Teleco. A stand of almost a square kilometer encapsulated this Identity search. The Valencian artisanal spheres that decorated the space – a beautiful wink four months after the Dana tragedy – represented something halfway between tradition and modernity. A Perfect metaphor of a company trapped between two worlds: The conventional teleco that is seeing how its margins are eroded, and the technology company in which it aspires to become. Above, Valencian artisan spheres connected to the failed world to decorate the stand. Below, the Autonomous Drone connected by 5G that starred in a part of the MWC of the Teleco. The metaphor of the two worlds among which Telefónica trapped: tradition (the pure telecation business) and modernity (the technological company in which it seeks to become). Image: Telefónica. An operator in a hostile world The European context does not help. While the United States has three main operators for 335 million people, Europe has 34 for 450 million. This fragmentation, praised by regulators as a low price guarantor, has created an ecosystem where no operator has the critical mass to compete globally. Murtra was not subtle in Barcelona with Your Opening Speech: “It is time for large European telecommunications companies to consolidate and grow to create technological capacity.” A warning: “Europe’s position in the world will continue to decide and will not have the capacity to decide its future autonomously.” What until recently was a business debate has now climbed to geopolitical matter. The new president draws the battle with a sports metaphor: “We operate in a fragmented market, it’s like playing football with a hand tied behind our backs. If we unleash our hands, we will mark a few goals.” A GRADE OF Aid Shared by the CEOs of Vodafone, Orange and Deutsche Telekom, who joined the choir In Barcelona with an unusual voice. Pallete left a perfect paradox on the table: He reduced the debt in half (from 53,000 million to less than 29,000) while the stock value collapsed 57%. The equation is clear: Financial sanitation is no longer enough to seduce markets. The investment seeks growth stories, not survival. And that is where the technological jacket feels better than that of Teleco. And for her they go. The MWC as a declaration of intentions The demos that Telefónica presented in Barcelona are the anticipation of their future bets. It is no longer limited to talking about connectivity, but goes into more complex territories: Autonomous drones integrated with Open Gateway APIS, Security in the face of quantum computing challengesand its digital operations center for cybersecurity. It is striking that the Teleco did not simply show its 5G network, but the applications that can be built on it. Your demo drones He showed cases of health, environmental and logistics use. An effort to be in the value chain beyond the “tube” of data is appreciated. Beyond the dreaded Commoditization. The presentation of its technology Quantum-Safe Networks He anticipates threats that have not even arrived yet, but they will do it when quantum computing is more present than future. The announcement of an excellence center in this field, although without detailing investment or template Xataka On this matter, it shows its intention to become a strategic security provider. Enrique Blanco, outgoing Ctio after four decades in the company, has indicated that they have been working in this field for a decade, conducting limited tests in areas such as Madrid or Vizcaya. But perhaps the most important bet is Open Gateway. Chema Alonso, visible face of digital transformation (although An uncertain future), has presented Agreements with Tiktok, Cabify, AWS, Google Cloud and the Community of Madrid. The goal is convert their networks, so far mere highways, on platforms that generate income. Telefónica wants to monetize its privileged position as an identity validity and position itself as a technological intermediary between citizens and services. However, Under these modernity signs, the structure of a company born to another world persists. Its corporate culture, molded for decades as a national monopoly, collides with the agility that innovation requires. The More than 100,000 employees that still maintains the group contrast with lighter operators. Not to mention the great technological ones. The impossible referents When telecos have tried to reinvent themselves, the results have been lime and sand. AT&T opted to become a media company acquiring Warnerjust to end selling it years later. Verizon bought Yahoo and Aol, and then detach from both in half of what cost them. Deutsche Telekom, perhaps the greatest success case, has managed to better balance its transformation, but as its CEO Tim Höttges explained in Barcelona, ​​”today we make 65% of our income in the United States.” Telefónica’s case is more complex. Its international expansion gave it global scale, but also dispersion (a few days ago He sold his Argentine subsidiary for 1,000 million). And its telephone division Tech points to diversification towards cybersecurity, Cloud and IoT, but still represents a small fraction of total income. In the agora of their stand in Barcelona, ​​where more than one hundred managers have paraded tensing during the fair, Telefónica has sought to project a technological leader image. The problem is that the market continues to see it fundamentally as a teleco with aspirations technot as a true technological company. The transition is a long process. The absent host paradox The MWC has put another painful irony on the table: Spain organizes the largest technological fair in the world While your participation in the development of the … Read more