How long have you been with Telefónica and what is your assessment of your time here?
Do you remember that famous comedy duo that made you burst out laughing at the number “twenty-two”? Well, there I am, and when I say it, a smile and a shiver runs down my spine, because no matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of years. Although as I have not been still within the group, and I have also changed activities many times, I don’t have the feeling that so much time has passed.
Here I have grown professionally, I have found my vocation in technology, and it has accompanied me in important moments in my life … so if one day they invent a machine that can see emotional tattoos, I’ll be wearing a big blue one.
Is there any project at Telefónica that you feel particularly satisfied with or proud of?
Well, my latest project is called LaCabina, and it’s Telefónica’s technology inspiration centre, which opened its doors in the Innovation and Talent Hub of the Telefónica District in October 2022. Since then it has done nothing but shatter our expectations: number of professional visits, events held, technologies exhibited and reactions it produces. You couldn’t be happier to see the team working there, it’s like a great Broadway musical that every day puts on a show at the highest level.
What do you think Telefónica has contributed to society?
I was lucky enough to attend “Conexiones”, an exhibition at Espacio Fundación Telefónica that shows in a very tangible way the parallels between the development of Spanish society since the 1930s and that of this company. A journey thanks to the technological heritage, the historical archive and the art collection, which brought me back to a country that is currently on the world podium in terms of the percentage of homes with fibre optics, and which is pulverising internet access speeds, allowing our economy to find no obstacles to its unstoppable digitalisation.
Where do you see Telefónica in the future?
Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate a forecast from a wish when you make it from something very dear to you, but I still see Telefónica weaving great webs of connectivity, both for people and for companies and certainly for new players such as robots and AIs (Artificial Intelligences). The vocation of offering technology as a service is still very much alive and has been and will continue to be key to its popularisation and mass use.
Could you live without a mobile phone?
The first time there was talk of bringing the internet to the mobile phone, I thought to myself, why would anyone want to interact with such a dreadfully bad interface compared to the convenience of being able to do it at home and with a much better experience? No, I certainly couldn’t make a living making predictions, but I still think that today’s ubiquitous mobile phone is nothing more than a personal computer with an interface built to keep us constantly on our toes, and we’ll see other devices replacing it … and that they don’t have the same eagerness to have our attention so extensively at their disposal. And the joke is already long, so I do hope to live without a mobile phone.
Help us solve one of the great enigmas of humanity: the potato omelette… With onion or without onion?
It is an absolutely wrong axis of discussion promoted by obscure interests of the food industry, which takes you away from what is really relevant: the omelette should be juicy.
Nominates another colleague to appear in this section
Alfonso Arroyo.
