Telefonica

Overview

Telefónica is a large multinational telecoms company founded and headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It started out in 1924 as the Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España, and was originally majority owned by the Spanish government under the dictatorship regime. Until the Spanish telecoms market was liberalised in 1997 it was the only telecoms company operating in Spain. It now operates across 20 different countries in Europe and South America. It is is publicly listed company with over 1.5 million shareholders, with some of its major investors including Spanish banks CaixaBank and Banco Bilbao.

It remains a major player in the European market where it is the parent company of Telefonica Deutschland, which was formed after Telefónica acquired mediaWays and HighwayOne in 2001 and 2002 respectively In the UK market Telefónica is the majority owner of 02 networks.

Telefónica has extensive influence across the Latin American market having formed many local subsidiaries. These include:Telefónica de Argentina which is the largest telecoms company in Argentina and owner of Movistar the local mobile network, Telefônica Basil which was formed in 1998 when Telefónica acquired Telesp (it also has a majority stake in Vivo the local mobile operator.) Telefónica also invested a majority state in Telecomunicaciones Colombia and has majority stakes in most Central and Southern American countries' telecommunications networks.

Telefónica Móviles is the mobile network operator for Telefónica in Latin America.

Telefónica, like many major telecommunications companies, operates data centres to support its services, including cloud computing and digital solutions.