The year 2017 has been key for Telefónica. From the Public Policy blog we have covered many milestones that have meant a great step forward in Telefonica’s transformation process to become an onlife telco. The presentation of Aura, the launch of LUCA’s Big Data business unit and why Spain is a fiber to the home (FTTH) leader in Europe are a good example of it. We also published the great work that our colleagues are doing in Latin America to bring Internet in rural areas and we also managed to understand all the possibilities that Blockchain technology has, among many other things. Don’t miss it out our top posts!
1) Spain has been the fastest country to develop a fibre-to-the-home technology (FTTH) network in Europe, thanks to the right competitive and regulatory conditions. By 2016, about 63% of Spanish households had access to ultra-fast broadband. Did you know that the country’s telecom operators have laid out fibre-optic cables reaching 31 million premises – more than France, Germany, the UK and Italy combined? Amazing isn’t it?
2) Chema Alonso opened the first edition of Big Data Innovation Day, an event organized by LUCA, Telefónica’s Big Data business unit. The meeting gathered together a large number of organisations that want to take advantage of Big Data’s potential for making decisions based on data. The executive presented LUCA’s new solutions and insisted in the importance of data to understand better the customers and help them to take better decisions based on data so they can save time and money. José María Álvarez-Pallete already highlighted at the beginning of 2017 about all the Big Data possibilities as a force for social good.
3) There has been a lot of media noise around so-called “net neutrality” rules after the FCC, the US telecommunications regulator, repealed the “2015 Open Internet Order” on December 15. Do not worry Internet is not going to disappear and the apocalypses has not arrived just yet. Telefónica supports the general principles of Net Neutrality but believes that the Internet ecosystem goes far beyond the networks and that the principle of neutrality should also be applied when contemplating other fundamental elements in the value chain. This is what we call Digital Neutrality.
4) Telefónica actively participated in the I Connected Industry 4.0 Congress, held in Madrid which brought together a large number of companies to share experiences and baseline trends to enable companies to position themselves at the forefront of this new industrial revolution. “Industry 4.0 is not an option but a necessity” stated José María Álvarez-Pallete during his keynote
5) Can a globe bring Internet to remote areas? Project Loon and Telefónica made it possible in a complicated moment for Peru that was hit by the “Coastal El Niño” phenomenon which brought devastating floods and rainfall across many parts of the country. Project Loon’s deployed infrastructure enabled Telefonica to deliver more than 160 GB of mobile data to its customers in areas outside Lima, Chimbote and Piura. Furthermore, we have recently signed a strategic agreement with Facebook to connect the unconnected. Don’t miss it out!
6) You still don’t know Aura? Aura is Telefónica’s 4th Platform and thanks to the application of cognitive capabilities, will be the basis for a new relationship model with costumers. AURA will enable users to manage their digital experiences with the company and control the data generated by using Telefónica’s products and services in a transparent and secure manner. Have a look at the presentation video at the Mobile World Congress.
7) In the context of the OECD annual forum, Carlos López Blanco, Global Head of Public affairs and regulation of Telefónica, has participated on the panel “The Digital World We Want“. The forum session was an opportunity to encourage a lively debate amongst panelists around the benefits of the digital transformation for citizens and business and its power as an economic level. Furthermore, in the same forum they interviewed the executive which gave his vision about the challenges and opportunities in Latin America and how the young people are the most important raw material (watch video)
8) Many people have talked about Blockchain in 2017 but do you know what role will it have in the telecommunications industry? Which services will they be created with the technology? Our specialists Christoph Steck and Eusebio Felguera, gave their vision in this exclusive interview. Furthermore, Telefónica, together with 70 of Spain’s largest companies and institutions, in sectors such as banking, energy and telecommunications, have set up Alastria (watch video), the world’s first blockchain-based regulated national network.
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