Networks and technology

Connectivity is the first requirement to access the digital world. Telecommunication networks are the most powerful transformative platform on Earth. Never before has a technology reached so many people so quickly.

Telecommunication companies are the backbone of our society and can only fulfill their role if they have the best networks, the best technology. Our effort is focused on ensuring that everyone, people and businesses, can access connectivity and digitization.

At Telefónica we are constantly working on building a future-proof, reliable, resilient and secure network.

A network based on fiber and FTTH technologies and on the evolution of 4G and 5G mobile technologies. Ensuring excellent Wi-Fi connectivity in the home.

Our network has always been a differential asset. People’s lives go through it and it has shown unparalleled strength when it has been most needed

A scalable, innovative network, capable of managing more and more traffic, a larger number of services and greater complexity in the value proposition offered both in B2C and B2B fields.

A flexible and efficient network thanks to an increasingly automated management and operation that evolves towards the zero-touch concept.

Powered by renewable sources a more sustainable network has managed to stabilize energy and electricity consumption since 2015. This has been possible despite the fact that the traffic managed by our networks has increased more than five times in that period of time.

A network that has demonstrated its robustness and stability by absorbing the great traffic growth generated by the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 without significant incidents or saturation.

An investment of more than € 95 bn since 2012 has been essential to ensure this performance.

Telefónica and 5G

With 5G, everything happens in a millisecond. One millisecond is what makes remote surgery, the autonomous car, the intelligent management of energy resources and cities, or the most advanced entertainment possible. A millisecond is much more than a new response time. It is Telefónica’s response to the new times. It is Telefónica’s commitment to the future.

Telefónica has already switched on 5G technology in its four main markets: Spain, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom. 5G is not just a new generation of mobile telephony, it is a revolution, due to its practical applications for all sectors and because it allows the expansion of ultra-broadband coverage. In addition, 5G technology is more energy efficient, up to 90% more than 4G per unit of traffic.

Fiber

Vision, technological leadership and an important investment commitment are keys to Telefónica’s positioning in fiber / FTTH. A long journey that began in Spain in 2008 with first deployments and continued in 2012 with its massification. In turn, this has facilitated the industrialization process of the deployment in all the company’s markets, transferring knowledge and joining a process of continuous improvement.

It is a total quality-oriented process based on a clear strategy, excellent execution supported by cutting-edge technology, and a deployment design consistent with local markets. Fiber is also 85% more energy efficient than copper and has fewer breakdowns.

Our leadership in FTTH deployments provides us with a clear competitive advantage position. Fiber is the technology that will allow us to offer our customers increasingly advanced services. It will also help us to improve even the transmission capabilities of the technology itself as required.

In addition, fiber technology allows us to optimize the deployment of 5G networks, support the backhaul of base stations and accommodate new capabilities, such as Edge computing.

We are aware of the essential role of our infrastructure at the present time and we have closed the year 2020 with 48 million premises passed with our own fiber network, leading the deployment of FTTH in Europe and Latam.

Network and System technologies

The new digital reality requires the adaptation of technological architectures of both networks and systems, so that the infrastructure can offer the precise support to the development of the business, the new services and the customer experience.

Within this technological strategy, it is worth highlighting trends as network virtualization and softwarization, the Telco Cloud paradigm and OpenRAN architectures in the field of mobile networks. Also Open Broadband in fixed networks, open and modular architectures in the IT field, as well as the evolution to 5G with edge computing and network slicing technologies, among others.

Open RAN
Open Broadband
Telco Cloud
Open Digital Architecture
Cloud Native IT

Edge computing
Network Slicing
Transport Network evolutione
Our Labs

A New Operating Model

The different segments of the network, fixed and mobile, and the set of systems are in the process of transformation to achieve greater flexibility, efficiency and customer orientation. The complexity of 5G networks will increase rapidly in the coming years and managing them manually will be unfeasible. Automation is absolutely mandatory because without it the network will not be able to grow to offer new services. At Telefónica we are working on transforming our operating models as we implement these new technologies. We are evolving to a data-driven operation supported by machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques. The ultimate goal is to achieve extreme automation.