Telefónica

Marc Murtra has been at the helm of Telefónica for a year and has done something that his predecessor did not achieve in a decade: slimming down the company

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Marc Murtra wears just over a year at the head of Telefónica and the 2025 numbers begin to validate its thesis: concentrate on four markets (Spain, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom) and avoid the rest. Group income have grown by 1.5%, up to 35,120 million eurosand the adjusted profit reaches 2,122 million. On paper, it works. Why is it important. Telefónica has done in two years what it was not able to do in a decade: get rid of Latin American ballasts (Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador…) and redraw its perimeter. The result is a smaller, but more predictable company. And in Spain, where it has not grown since 2008, it has once again shown signs of life: +1.7% in revenue, up to 13,012 million. The backdrop. The Álvarez-Pallete stage cut the debt of the Alierta stage by halfbut it was still a brutal debt and the company had a geographical dispersion that consumed a lot of management energy without a return that was far from proportional. Murtra has opted for surgery: sell assets, continue reducing debt (337 million less in 2025, it is already at 26,824 million) and bet on markets where Telefónica has real muscle. The logic is clear. And the execution, reasonably clean. Between the lines. Brazil is now the financial heart of the group, and that has implications that go beyond quarterly results. Vivo, Telefónica’s local brand in the country, has earned more than 1,000 million euros net in 2025, 11.2% morewith an Ebitda of 41.7% that would make any European telecom company blush. Its 5G network already covers two-thirds of the Brazilian population and leads the market by number of customers. Brazil should no longer be considered an emerging market with potential: right now it is the most mature and profitable asset that Telefónica has. There is also a background reading that the results do not make explicit but that the context does suggest: the demand for data in Latin America is accelerating precisely now due to the pull of AI: more consumption in the cloud, more traffic, more need for infrastructure. Telefónica has sold its Latin American subsidiaries just when that market may be entering a new phase of growth. It is the big question that presumably no one at Telefónica wants to answer openly. Main winner? Brazil, without a doubt, but also Spain. The domestic business has broken a curse of almost two decades and is beginning to generate cash in a stable manner. That debt goes down, albeit slowly, while income goes up, is the combination that the market has been waiting for for years. Main loser? The United Kingdom. Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), the joint venture in which Telefónica has 50%, has registered net losses of 1,852 million euros in 2025 (up from £19m the previous year) following a goodwill impairment charge of more than £1bn. Its income has fallen 5.3%. And by 2026, the company itself expects service revenue to drop between 3% and 5% more, dragged down by integration with Daisy Group in May 2025. The British telecommunications market is in a price war that has no easy winners, and VMO2 has been sailing against the tide for some time. The big question. Murtra has shown the ability to clean up the balance and simplify the map. What has not yet been demonstrated is that Telefónica can grow organically and sustainably in its four key markets. Spain and Brazil are making progress, but Germany continues to be a story of pending consolidation and the United Kingdom is getting complicated. The plan is well designed. Now it’s time to execute it. In Xataka | We need more and more data centers. And Telefónica is building them in its old telephone exchanges Featured image | Telephone

Telefónica is already selling its minicenters to compete in the era of real time

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For years they have told us that the future of artificial intelligence lies inincreasingly larger data centersmore powerful and more demanding in energy consumption. And it’s true that computing muscle matters. But there is an equally determining factor that is talked about much less: distance. In the era of real time, it’s not just how much you process that matters, but where you do it. Every millisecond that data takes to travel can disrupt the ability to react instantly. This nuance, apparently technical, is beginning to become a strategic issue for Spanish companies. Telefónica’s bet. The company has activated the commercialization of its edge computing services for B2B clients in five Spanish cities, Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao and A Coruña, as part of a broader deployment that includes 17 nodes in this initial phase. This means that companies and administrations can now hire these processing and storage capacities close to the point where the data is generated. Closer data. Edge computing involves processing information where it is generated, rather than constantly sending it to distant data centers. As Microsoft explainsis about moving computing and storage capacity to peripheral network locations, such as factories, stores, offices or distributed infrastructures. In practice, local devices and servers analyze and filter data on site and only send what is relevant to central systems. The goal is to reduce latency, alleviate network traffic and enable real-time responses, complementing rather than replacing traditional cloud. The deployment. Telefónica’s Edge Plan plans to reach 17 nodes in this first phase throughout this year. According to the company, 12 infrastructures are already deployed: to the five with active B2B services, other nodes are added in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Valladolid, Terrassa and Mérida. This same year, the incorporation of Zaragoza, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gijón, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Santiago de Compostela is planned. Many of these facilities are located in old copper plants converted into Edge centers, adapted to availability and security requirements. Basic and Smart. Telefónica does not sell “edge” in the abstract, but rather two concrete ways of using it. The first is Basic Edge, a stable layer that brings computing capacity closer to the territory and focuses on data control and compliance with national, regional or local regulatory frameworks. Each node acts as an availability zone, allowing applications to be deployed with additional guarantees of continuity and resilience. The second is Smart Edge, which introduces dynamism: selection of the most appropriate node at all times, creation of instances on demand and operation with FTTH or 5G SA connectivity depending on the scenario. Beyond physical infrastructure. Telefónica integrates computing capacity with GPUs into its portfolio for artificial intelligence loads, available as a service and deployed in Edge nodes. This allows companies and institutions to run high-performance models without purchasing their own hardware and maintaining processing within the defined regional environment. The company also mentions the incorporation of RAG agents and capabilities to adapt models to specific contexts. Overall, the strategy seeks to bring AI closer to data under criteria of sovereignty and regulatory compliance. When the millisecond rules. An example helps to dimension the scope of this architecture. Telefónica developed with CAF a pilot that combines Edge and 5G Stand Alone for the railway sector, providing artificial vision solutions that process data close to the asset instead of depending on centralized infrastructure. According to the company, this approach avoids installing processing nodes in each car and keeps responsiveness at levels compatible with real-time operations. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro In Xataka | We had suspicions, but Sam Altman has confirmed it: AI is just an excuse to fire

Telefónica sought to dismiss 4,525 employees with its ERE. Now you have a problem called 5,124 volunteers

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Telefónica has closed the first phase of your ERE in Spain with more employees wanting to leave the company than places available in the ERE. 5,124 workers from the different subsidiaries of the operator presented themselves as candidates to benefit from the ERE. Of these volunteers to leave the company, 352 candidates have been left out because the maximum number of dismissals agreed with the unions has been exceeded. This excess of volunteers worries union representatives. Volunteers to be fired. At the end of December, the company and unions signed the conditions for the Employment Regulation File that will affect seven subsidiaries of the Telefónica group: Telefónica de España, Telefónica Móviles, Telefónica Soluciones, Telefónica Global Solutions, Telefónica Innovación Digital, Telefónica SA and Movistar+. There A minimum of 4,525 departures was set for the entire group, reducing the number of layoffs by 25.6% from the 6,088 that the company planned at the beginning. This implies a reduction of 26.2% of the 17,248 employees of those seven companies. The bulk of the layoffs he was going to concentrate on the matrix and its two main subsidiaries. That is, Telefónica España, Telefónica Móviles and Telefónica Soluciones for which a minimum of 3,765 departures and a maximum of 5,040 were marked. According to pointed Digital EconomyIn these three subsidiaries, 3,995 volunteers have been registered in Telefónica de España, 990 in Móviles and 179 in Solutions, adding up to a total of 5,124 requests to join the ERE. 84 more than the maximum limit provided for them. How many applications are accepted. Of the requests presented for these three subsidiaries, Telefónica has accepted a total of 4,772 exits, which are distributed as follows: 3,649 exits in Telefónica de España, 960 in Mobile and 163 in Solutions, reaching 100% of the objective. That leaves 352 rejected, distributed as follows: 306 in Telefónica de España, 30 in Mobile and 16 in Solutions. It is not the first time that there are more applications for membership than departure places. A similar phenomenon also occurred in the company’s previous ERE. In fact, the unions are asking that priority be given to those employees who were rejected in the previous ERE of 2024reinforcing the voluntary nature of the measure and avoiding forced dismissals. Unions are concerned about the excess. In a statementCCOO insists that the ERE is voluntary and agreed upon, but the excess of applications submitted to the company’s headquarters has them worried. The union insists on analyzing the background that has led so many employees to express their desire to leave the company. “The large number of requests also shows discontent and the need to leave Telefónica, a worrying issue because it indicates a clear dissatisfaction of the staff in the exercise of their professional development,” the union interpreted. What remains to be decided. With the three majority subsidiaries of the Related Companies Agreement already almost closed, it is time to analyze the applications from Telefónica Global Solutions, Telefónica SA, Telefónica Innovación Digital and Movistar+. For these three subsidiaries Global Solutions, Telefónica SA and Telefónica Innovación Digital, 416 volunteers have presented themselves for the 585 planned departures (109 in Global Solutions, 182 in Innovación Digital and 294 in Telefónica SA). This accession leaves these subsidiaries with coverage of 71.11% of the total, forcing the company to look for new candidates and opt for forced dismissals. Something that unions want to avoid at all costs. In other words, while in the group’s headquarters some employees want to leave and cannot, in the smaller subsidiaries they will have to fire employees who want to stay. No news from Movistar+. The Movistar+ TV platform It is the big unknown at the moment, since the numbers of applications to benefit from the ERE, which will affect 175 employees of this division, which represents 20% of its workforce, have not yet been made public. In Xataka | Severance compensation: when there is the right to collect it according to the type of dismissal and how it is calculated Image | Telephone

Vodafone negotiates with Telefónica and Orange to create a common front: a RANco

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Eamonn O’Hare, CEO of Zegona (the owner of Vodafone Spain), has confirmed to Expansion which is in talks with Orange and Telefónica to create a RANco, a mobile network joint venture in the style of the fibercos which launched in 2025. Why is it important. Spain has three large operators managing three national mobile networks with identical fixed costs, but Orange and Telefónica have double Vodafone’s customers. This asymmetry makes Vodafone’s mobile network, comparatively, inefficient. A RANco would allow sharing infrastructure, reducing expenses and improving quality without eroding profitability. The context. Vodafone has multiplied its share price by 12 in 20 months after reducing costs and close two fibercos that generated 2.2 billion in value. The share went from 345 pence (things from the London stock market) when they bought Vodafone Spain to more than 1,565 pence now, and has returned 1,400 million in dividends to its shareholders. It now trades at 9 times its cash flow when its competitors do so at 13 times. The RANco is the missing piece to close that gap. How a RANco works. A RANco is a wholesale mobile network company shared between operators that provides services to its owners. It is similar to fibercos: the network is unified, synergies are captured and a minority stake is sold to an international investor. Vodafone pays 150 million annually to Vantage Towers for towers at double the market price. With the RANco, those costs are divided. Two possible scenarios: With Orange: easier to execute and attract investors, but fewer synergies because they already share a network in some areas. With Telefónica: more synergies by not having anything shared, but more complex to incorporate a financial partner. The calendar. O’Hare puts the closure of RANco within a year and a half. And in November 2028, the window opens to abandon the contract with Vantage Towers. Vodafone has already made a decision: either Vantage reduces its rates by 50% or terminates the agreement. Yes, but. Mergers between operators are not on the table. O’Hare rules out short-term purchases or sales because the regulatory risk is “too great” and would distract the group from its three priorities: Align your stock valuation with the competition. Reach 1,000 million in cash flow. And develop the RANco. The figures. Vodafone Spain generated 400 million in cash flow when Zegona bought it. Last year it reached 600 million. This year it will be close to 800 million. The goal is to reach 1,000 million in the coming years. At stake. The RANco is not just a financial movement. Turning off the cable network will take three or four years migrating customers to fiber. Small operators will disappear, devoured by Digi and Finetwork. And Vodafone keeps open a possible IPO in Spain within three or four years, when it would complete its transformation. The shadow of Telefónica. As published Populi Voice A few days ago, Telefónica began talks to buy Vodafone Spain and close the operation in the first half of 2026. But a RANco with Orange or with Telefónica itself, in addition to O’Hare’s own interview, would change the equation: Vodafone would enter that negotiation with shared infrastructure and long-term contracts that would make the purchase more expensive or directly unviable. Zegona negotiates the RANco also as a policy. Featured image | Orange, Movistar, Vodafone In Xataka | Any teleoperator would be worried about making less money with each client. Digi is exactly what you are looking for

Telefónica promised great savings by 2030. Its ERE has been negotiated at 2,500 million euros and 4,525 layoffs

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Telefónica and the majority unions UGT, CCOO and Fetico-Sumados have signed the employment regulation file (ERE) that will affect the seven subsidiaries of the group. The minimum volume of departures is set at 4,525 employees, 14 less than initially planned after a last-minute reduction in the divisions of Telefónica Global Solutions, Telefónica Innovación Digital and Telefónica SA As highlighted by CCOO statementthe agreement is reached after almost a month of marathon negotiations, which began in November when the management communicated its intention to carry out the ERE for objective reasons that would affect 6,088 employees. Fewer layoffs than estimated He agreement reached establishes the minimum departure of some 4,525 employees, which represents a reduction of 25.6% compared to the 6,088 dismissals proposed at the beginning of the negotiations. However, this limit only responds at a minimum estimatethe company estimates that finally about 5,500 employees will take voluntary leave. In any case, it is a lower figure than that announced by the operator before the negotiations. The bulk of the adjustment corresponds to the companies covered by the Related Companies Agreement (CEV), with 3,765 minimum departures distributed as follows: 2,925 in Telefónica de España (almost 33% of a workforce of 8,892 people), 720 in Telefónica Móviles (20% of a total of 3,587 employees) and 120 in Telefónica Soluciones (11% of 1,118 workers). In the case of these companies covered by the Related Companies Agreement, the final number of dismissals is not fixed, but depends on the volume of voluntary adhesions, with a range that goes from 3,765 to 5,040 departures. The group’s global units total 585 layoffs. 109 layoffs in Telefónica Global Solutions (17% of the 638 employees), 182 in Digital Innovation (18.3% of 993 employees) and 294 in the TSA parent company (25.3% of 1,160 employees). Added to these figures are 175 departures from Movistar+, which represent 20.3% of its workforce of 860 people, a significant reduction compared to the 297 departures initially planned. Economic conditions and membership requirements Compensation contemplates different sections depending on the year of birth of the workers. Those born between 1969 and 1971 will receive 68% of the regulatory salary until the age of 63 and 38% thereafter, although in Movistar+ those born in 1971 are excluded. For the oldest For those born between 1965 and 1968, the percentages are 62% up to age 63 and 34% thereafter, while those born in 1964 or before will receive 52% of the salary up to age 63 and 35% thereafter. To voluntarily join with these conditions, 15 years of seniority in related subsidiaries and 13 years of seniority in global subsidiaries are required. In addition, the latter include voluntary bonuses of between 5,000 and 18,000 euros depending on seniority, doubling the amounts initially proposed. The departure process will be carried out in a staggered manner depending on the subsidiary. For related subsidiaries, the voluntary departure request period will begin on December 29 and end on January 26, while for global subsidiaries, it will extend from December 29 to January 29. In Movistar+, the voluntary deadline is postponed until January 7 and will be accepted until February 6. Spend to save Telefónica calculates that this ERE will have a cost of about 2,500 million euros before taxes. For Telefónica España and Movistar Plus+ the provision will be around 2.3 billion euros, while for the corporate units it will be approximately 200 million euros respectively. These staff cuts are part of the new Transform & Grow strategic plan of Telefónica for the period 2026-2030, which seeks to save costs up to 3,000 million euros annually in 2030. However, the company estimates annual savings close to 600 million euros from 2028, with a positive impact on cash generation as early as 2026. Simultaneously with the ERE, Telefónica has reached an agreement with the union centers to extend the collective agreements of the seven subsidiaries until 2030. The most significant advance is the commitment to increase salaries 1.5% each year while the agreement is in force, affecting both the related subsidiaries and the global units of Telefónica. Employees of the linked subsidiaries will receive an additional payment of 300 euros in October, of which 150 euros will be consolidated annually in the salary tables. The social benefits include the extension of the teleworking package up to 12 days, the extension of the 36 hour work week to global units, the improvement of bank guarantees for home purchases from 75,000 to 100,000 euros, aid of 3,000 euros for rent and the declaration of December 24 and 31 as non-working days. In Xataka | The best strategies to ask for a salary increase, the negotiation most similar to a “battle” at work Image | Telephone

Telefónica leaves Wall Street through the back door. Goodbye to almost four decades in the largest market in the world

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Telefónica has started the procedures to delist your shares from the New York Stock Exchangewhere it has been listed since 1987. The securities will stop trading on Wall Street in a matter of days once the documentation is filed with the SEC. The telecom will only maintain its listing in Madrid, in the Spanish continuous market. Why is it important. The movement closes a symbolic chapter that began when Telefónica became the first Spanish company to be listed on the largest market in the world. But the symbolism was left behind: today maintaining that presence involves high administrative costs and regulatory demands that no longer compensate. The trading volume in New York is residual and investor interest is practically non-existent. The context. Telefónica’s stock has fallen more than 90% in the last fifteen years. Its current valuation is on the floor, very far from that giant that in the nineties became the most valuable company in Spain. The dividend, which for years was the main attraction for conservative investors, has been successively cut, the last time this quarter. Buying in Madrid is more direct, cheaper and with the same liquidity as in New York, where securities are hardly traded. Between the lines. This decision fits into the strategic plan presented in November by Marc Murtra, focused on aggressively reducing costs. Telefónica has been lowering its blinds on all fronts: Sold subsidiaries throughout Latin America except Brazil. Reduced the dividend. Presented an ERE which is ending its negotiation phase. And now it is abandoning stock markets where being present no longer adds value. Also will stop trading in Lima. The figure. 4,554 departures are contemplated by the ERE that was agreed this Wednesday with the unions, 26% of the workforce in Spain. Cost savings are the obsession of the new management: 3 billion annually until 2030. Yes, but. Investors who have ADR certificates (American Depositary Receipts) will be able to exchange them for common shares in Spain or hold and trade them in US over-the-counter markets. Telefónica will provide both options, although it is evident that it prefers the first. The background. The exit from Wall Street is not an isolated or recent decision: The telecommunications sector has lost interest from investors, especially in Europe. It is a mature business, highly regulated, with tight margins and little ability to surprise. Telefónica today is a very different company from the one that debuted on Wall Street: smaller, more regional, more European. Its new strategy focuses on four markets (Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil) and on consolidating itself as a reference operator with profitable scale, in addition to increasing its focus on technological solutions. Marking agenda. Wednesday’s day at the Distrito Telefónica offices north of Madrid was hectic. The contrast. When Telefónica went public in New York in 1987, it placed certificates worth $375 million, the largest influx of European capital on Wall Street up to that time. The telecom was then majority owned by the State and its debut was seen as a milestone of internationalization. Today it leaves unnoticed, recognizing that the regulatory burden and administrative costs of the SEC outweigh any benefits. Go deeper. The obligation to report detailed information to the SEC was useful at the time: thanks to it, data such as the price that STC or SEPI paid to enter the capital were known, information that the Spanish CNMV would never have required to reveal. But that level of transparency also has a cost, and Telefónica has decided that it is no longer worth paying for. In Xataka | The Government has had an idea so that the next blackout does not leave us without mobile data: let the operators pay Featured image | Telefónica, Lo Lo

Movistar Plus+ was making a comeback after four years of losing customers. Telefónica has decided to cut its workforce

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Telefónica has set 119 final departures in Movistar Plus+part of the ERE that will eliminate 4,554 positions in Spain. It is a reduction compared to the more than 200 losses initially planned, but it comes at the worst moment: when the platform was finally adding clients again. Why is it important. Movistar Plus+ has 3.75 million (the most recent data is from September 30) , the best data since 2018 after years of collapse. It lost almost 650,000 clients between 2019 and 2023, hit rock bottom, and was already beginning to recover. Now Telefónica is cutting muscle just when it needed to step on the accelerator. The paradox. The company bet a lot of money buying Canal+ and launching its own productions to compete with Netflix and Prime Video. When the numbers improve, he reduces the workforce. The inevitable question: how are you going to keep up with global giants with fewer people and a tighter budget? Yes, but. Subscriber growth does not guarantee profitability. Telefónica has reoriented Movistar Plus+ towards a more flexible and cheaper offer, unrelated to convergent packages. That adds customers but compresses margins. And competing in streaming without a global scale is very expensive. The unequal context. Netflix already has more than 300 million subscribers in the world. Prime Video exceeds 200 million. Disney+ around 120 million. Movistar Plus+ has 3.75 million in Spain, at the end of the third quarter of 2025. The difference in scale is brutal and translates directly into budget for content, technology and distribution. What works. Football continues to be the lifeline. LaLiga and the Champions League keep many subscribers hooked who, without that content, perhaps would not have stayed for so long. But a platform cannot be built only on sports rights that also increase in price every cycle, as we saw a few days ago. What deserves more luck. Movistar Plus+’s own series and documentaries have objective quality. ‘Poison‘, ‘The Messiah‘, ‘The Plague‘, ‘riot police‘, ‘The Pioneer‘ either ‘Rapa‘ demonstrate the ability to find powerful stories with local cultural sensitivity. Netflix and Prime also produce Spanish content, but Movistar Plus+ has built its own catalog that transcends obvious trends and connects with the public in another way. The problem is not the quality of the content. Quality is sometimes not enough when you compete against infinite budgets and recommendation algorithms fine-tuned with data from hundreds of millions of users. The big question. What will become of Movistar Plus+ if it continues to contract? It was beginning to regain ground, but doing so with 119 fewer people makes it difficult to maintain the pace. Without the investment capacity to match the Netflix-Amazon-Disney triumvirate, the room for maneuver narrows every quarter. The background. This ERE is not an isolated case. Telefónica has been thinning its workforce for years while it pivots towards infrastructure and gets rid of unprofitable Latin American subsidiaries. Marc Murtra, president for one year, has renovated its entire dome. The 2024 one cost 1,300 million and took 3,421 positions. This new adjustment will be more expensive and deeper. Between the lines. The unions have ended up accepting forced dismissals in minority companies such as Movistar Plus+, despite having set it as an initial red line. The pressure from the workforce to guarantee early retirements in other subsidiaries has weighed more than maintaining positions. UGT and CCOO have appealed to “common sense” and “responsibility”common euphemisms to justify a capitulation. In Xataka | Telefónica is preparing a tough ERE, but for many veterans it will be like a prize Featured image | Xataka with Mockuuups Studio

Telefónica is preparing a tough ERE, but for many veterans it will be like a prize

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Telefónica has informed the unions of an ERE that would affect 6,088 employees, 24% of its workforce in Spain. The initial proposal includes seven companies and will presumably replicate the pattern of the last adjustment: in the 2024 ERE there were more applications to take advantage of the available spaces. More than 200 people were left outside. Or rather: inside. In detail. The most affected divisions: Telefónica de España: 3,649 departures, 41% of the workforce. Mobile phones: 1,124 (31.3%) Solutions: 267 (23.9%). Movistar+: 279 employees, almost a third. The parent company (SA), Global Solutions and Digital Innovation: between 140 and 378 exits (from 22% to 32%). The backdrop. The adjustment is framed in the Marc Murtra’s strategic plan to save 3,000 million euros until 2030. The objective: to reduce overhead costs that grow faster than income in a fragmented Europe with almost 40 competing operators. The Ministry of Labor described as “indecent” that a company with the State as a shareholder (10% via SEPI) executes an ERE while in profits. But the Government itself endorsed this strategic plan, on the condition that there was a union agreement. Minister Óscar López made it clear: “It always has to be with the agreement of the unions.” Between the lines. Incentives explain the avalanches of applications: In the ERE of 2024, compensation was around 67% of the salary until age 63, with paid contributions, health insurance and a supplement of 38% until age 65. The average cost per departure was 380,000 euros. Less generous than in previous EREs (in 2021 it was 463,500 euros), but enough to pack your bags. The annual savings for the company, 285 million euros. For someone who turns 56-57 and has been in the house for decades, it is a difficult deal to refuse. Those affected earn until they retire without having to work. This ERE targets those born in 1969, 1970 and 1971, with departures staggered between 2026 and 2028. Yes, but. As in The Leftoversa good part of the story is that of those who remain. The veterans come out with the mattress on. Those who remain – especially the younger ones – will presumably inherit more burden, more uncertainty and a less clear professional future. The question that no one has answered yet: which Telefónica will be left after losing weight at the top? The unions already know this. UGT, CCOO and Fetico-Sumados They demand that departures be voluntary (as in 2024), but they also want to extend the agreement until 2030, tie in improvements in teleworking, working hours and salaries, and guarantee stability for the next five years. Without improvements for those who follow, there will be no agreement. The great unknown. Not all branches have the age pyramids to fill positions only with volunteers. The three main ones of the Related Companies Agreement (Spain, Mobile, Solutions) repeat the profile: aging staff, high seniority, juicy incentives. The unions predict that the excess of requests will be repeated. But at Telefónica SA (the corporate center), Global Solutions or Digital Innovation, the staff is younger. There the risk of forced dismissals is greater. CCOO has already warned that in these subsidiaries “the population pyramids are different.” In perspective. The “bargain” for those over 55 coexists with the concern of those who cannot benefit. A Telefónica that reduces costs, yes, but also a generational gap that widens with each ERE. And an unresolved question: how to prevent the next political or shareholder change from activating the guillotine again? The unions want shields until 2030. The company, room for maneuver. In Xataka | The great dilemma of Spanish telecos: either they become giants or China swallows them Featured image | Telephone

Telefónica has achieved its best portability data in 25 years. It’s a sign that something is changing.

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Between July and September, Telefónica has achieved 80,000 net additions due to portability – mobile and landline combined –, the highest figure since this mechanism was implemented in 2000, according to the latest data reported by Expansion. The data continues to go bankrupt for a quarter of a century, losing customers almost uninterruptedly. Since May 2024, the operator has had 17 consecutive months of positive results in mobile, a streak that it only shares with Digi. Why is it important. Portability measures who best understands what the user wants and who executes it. It’s not statistical noise: it’s money, market share and retention capacity. Telefónica had been the big natural loser of the system for decades—it came from a monopoly so it had the largest base as well as the highest prices—but now it reverses the equation. Something has changed, either in its proposal or in the market. Or both. The figures: In mobile, Telefónica has added 64,000 net lines in the quarter, compared to 45,000 in the same period of 2024. So far this year, it has accumulated 135,000 new lines, almost ten times the 14,000 in the first nine months of last year. In fixed terms, it achieved 16,000 quarterly registrations, its best historical record, and has had a positive six months. It is the first time that it has achieved two consecutive quarters of winning in both markets at the same time. The contrast. If Telefónica and Digi grow, MasOrange and Vodafone sink: MasOrange has lost 138,000 mobile lines in the quarter – 438,000 so far this year, 50% more than in 2024. Vodafone gave up 91,000 lines in the third quarter and 272,000 in the accumulated annual period. Digi, for its part, adds 177,000 quarterly registrations, 21% more than a year ago, and leads the acquisition with 605,000 lines gained between January and September. Between the lines. The market is polarizing: Telefónica retains and attracts the premium customer, who values ​​service, network and stability over price. Digi sweeps the segment low cost pure, where only the cheapest rate matters. The operators in the middle—MasOrange with its cheap legacy brands, Zegona’s Vodafone dragging problems from the past—they lose on both sides. Yes, buteither. MasOrange faces a structural problem: many of its brands—MásMóvil, Yoigo, Pepephone, Simyo—have customers who are hypersensitive to price, willing to jump at the first cent difference. Vodafone, for its part, still bears the consequences of quit football in 2018a decision that caused a mass exodus and from which it has never fully recovered. Now add the uncertainty of Finetworkin pre-contest and losing 48,000 lines in the quarter. The backdrop. To find a quarter similar to Telefónica’s current one, you have to go back to 2018, when Vodafone left football and the historic operator gained 66,000 net lines. But that was temporary, a gift from the competition. This is different: Telefónica has been winning in mobile for 17 months without any rival having made a catastrophic mistake. It is sustained improvement. Small virtual operators are also beginning to disappear from the map. In the third quarter they have lost 11,000 net lines, compared to the 9,000 they gained a year ago. Digi is sweeping them away. The market is simplified: the big ones with the muscle to invest in the network remain (Telefónica, MasOrange, Vodafone) and the disruptor low cost (Digi). The rest, adrift. In Xataka | Telefónica is about to surprise itself: its future is no longer in communications Featured image | Telephone

Telefónica will have its “day D” in November. The Teleco plays its future with Murtra behind the wheel

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Almost nine months Murtra as president of Telefónica. What lasts a pregnancy, which lasts a course. On November 4 will be born its strategic plan and Marc will have its final exam. That day will present the master lines that will define the direction of the centenary telecus for the coming years. The date is not accidental, it coincides with the results of the third quarter. Perfect occasion to combine the figures of the present with the promises of the future. And after that staging there is a company that is played much more than its next investment cycle. The scenario of the arrival to power of Murtra is, above all, a paradox: He inherited a financially sanitized telephone: Pallete reduced debt in half. But also a telephone punished by the market: the action lost 57% of its value in the previous era. The balance says the company is better. The stock market says that investors do not believe it. The market seeks growth stories, not survival. This contradiction defines the challenge of the Catalan engineer: it is not enough to be right in the accounts, we must convince those who move the silver. Speaking of silverMurtra’s great movement in his first months is the execution of The fastest exit of Latin America In the history of Telefónica. Argentina, sold. Peru, liquidated –not to say-. Colombia, more of the same. Mexico, with the “sell” poster. And at the same time, he has placed Europe at the center of his board with An aggressive discourse on consolidation. He talks about creating a “European champion” while he has in the spotlight, says the Rumore Rumoreto Vodafone Spain. With 1 & 1 in Germany in the bedroom. Is The commitment of who understands that there is no middle ground: o Telefónica grows based on acquisitions, or becomes a prey to more ambitious ones. And it has lost more than 80% of its value from its historical maximums, so it is no longer so inaccessible by price. On November 4 he will say if this strategy has a financial muscle behind or stays in speech. Local operators They have already raised the voice Against its concentration plan, Brussels has begun to leave behind its historical misgivings on mergers although the verdict remains an unknown, and the market expects to see concrete figures on where the billions that will cost these operations will come out. Murtra faces The question that defines all the great executives: Is it a visionary or a volunteer? In two months we will know. In Xataka | 100 years after his birth, Telefónica faces the greatest existential dilemma in its history: what wants to be older Outstanding image | Telefónica

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