Research house OMDIA says Telefónica is the telco in Europe best positioned to transition to a technology company. In its Telco-to-Techco Strategies Benchmark ranking, OMDIA has moved Telefónica up the rankings since its last benchmark report so that it is now fourth in the world overall (behind China Mobile, NTT and SK Telecom), but first in the European and Americas.
The analyst firm especially highlights the success of the Telefónica Tech. Its Director of Strategy and Business Transformation, Mario Silva, explains, “At Telefónica we have demonstrated our ability to evolve from a traditional telco to a company that offers advanced technological solutions to our clients.
“We lead the transformation and evolution of the societies and economies of the countries where we operate, thanks to the development of cloud computing capabilities, cybersecurity, IoT, Data and Artificial Intelligence. We offer innovative, differential and sustainable solutions that contribute to a more digital and connected future.”
Telefónica Tech has a workforce of more than 6,000 experts from more than 60 nationalities, who collectively hold more than 4,000 certifications in digital skills.
OMDIA’s report also focuses on how Telefónica is promoting the transformation of its Networks and Systems by accelerating the Autonomous Network Journey (ANJ) program, through the transition of technology towards a disaggregated and software-based architecture.
The operator says the customer and sustainability objectives are always at the centre of its endeavours, with privacy and security. It adds that by promoting network autonomy through data management, AI and machine learning, the network will be better adapted and more resilient and sustainable. This will provide multiple benefits such as higher quality of services, better allocation of resources and lower operating costs.
The analyst firm also underlines Telefónica’s role in the global telco sector initiative Open Gateway, led by the GSMA. The idea behind this initiative is to enable companies and developers to integrate telcos’ advanced network capabilities in an intuitive, interoperable and standardised way using APIs. This also results in users gaining more digital services.
Telefónica so far has developed 10 APIs and markets Open Gateway in Brazil, Spain and Germany. The operator says this has been achieved thanks to the agility provided by
Kernel 2.0, Telefónica’s own digital ecosystem based on APIs.
This create products, services, applications and digital platforms in all the countries in which Telefónica operates. Its technology provides standardized and unified information, as well as guaranteeing data privacy and security throughout the process.