Europe
Spain
Telefónica is the second largest corporation in Spain, behind the Santander Group.[16] It operates under the Movistar and O2 brands with the first being the largest broadband and phone (both mobile and landlines) provider in Spain.
Telefónica's FTTH network in Spain is the most extensive fibre-to-home network in Europe, as of April 2016,[17] and the shutdown plan for the legacy copper network is already in progress.[18]
Germany
Telefónica is the parent of Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG, which held two alternative IP carriers. The two ISPs, mediaWays and HighwayOne merged in January 2003 after having been purchased by Telefónica in 2001 and February 2002 respectively.
On 26 January 2006, Telefónica completed its £17.7 billion (€25.7 billion) acquisition of the UK-based operator O2 which also provided mobile phone services in Germany under the O2 brand.[19] Following the purchase, Telefónica merged Telefónica Deutschland and O2 Germany to form the current business Telefónica Germany.
Telefónica Germany, purchased competitor E-Plus on 1 October 2014. As part of the purchase, Telefónica reduced its stake in its subsidiary to 62.1%. Integration continues as of August 2015, but the now merged network is Germany's largest in customers.
United Kingdom
On 31 October 2005, O2 agreed to be taken over by Telefónica, with a cash offer of £17.7 billion, or £2 per share.[20] According to the merger announcement, O2, which provided mobile phone services in the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Isle of Man (uniquely to the O2 group Manx Telecom also offered fixed-line services), retained its name and continued to be based in the United Kingdom, keeping both the brand and the management team. The merger became unconditional on 23 January 2006 and O2 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Telefónica. Manx Telecom was sold by Telefónica Europe in June 2010.
In January 2015, Li Ka-shing entered into talks with Telefónica to buy O2 for around £10.25 billion, aiming to merge it with his subsidiary Three.[21] The acquisition was officially blocked by the European Commission on 11 May 2016, which argued that the merger would reduce consumer choice and lead to a higher cost of services[22] Telefónica began to seek a stock market flotation of the business instead.[23]
Austria
In May 2022, Telefónica announced the acquisition of the European cloud-based services specialist and cloud Microsoft Dynamics partner BE-terna. The deal, worth €350 million, included 1,000 staff, AI, extended service capabilities across Europe, and a cybersecurity services division. The deal aimed to see Telefónica increase its geographic scale and aid its digital capabilities.[26]
France
In France, since 2011, Telefónica has a joint venture with the French telecommunications company Bouygues Telecom, part of the Bouygues group, to offer global telecommunication services packages to multinational companies. This cooperation was expanded in June 2015 through the creation of a separate joint venture company named Telefónica Global Solutions France, with its own marketing and sales teams offering Telefónica and Bouygues Telecom services packages to corporations.[27]
Spain
Telefónica is the second largest corporation in Spain, behind the Santander Group.[16] It operates under the Movistar and O2 brands with the first being the largest broadband and phone (both mobile and landlines) provider in Spain.
Telefónica's FTTH network in Spain is the most extensive fibre-to-home network in Europe, as of April 2016,[17] and the shutdown plan for the legacy copper network is already in progress.[18]
Germany
Telefónica is the parent of Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG, which held two alternative IP carriers. The two ISPs, mediaWays and HighwayOne merged in January 2003 after having been purchased by Telefónica in 2001 and February 2002 respectively.
On 26 January 2006, Telefónica completed its £17.7 billion (€25.7 billion) acquisition of the UK-based operator O2 which also provided mobile phone services in Germany under the O2 brand.[19] Following the purchase, Telefónica merged Telefónica Deutschland and O2 Germany to form the current business Telefónica Germany.
Telefónica Germany, purchased competitor E-Plus on 1 October 2014. As part of the purchase, Telefónica reduced its stake in its subsidiary to 62.1%. Integration continues as of August 2015, but the now merged network is Germany's largest in customers.
United Kingdom
On 31 October 2005, O2 agreed to be taken over by Telefónica, with a cash offer of £17.7 billion, or £2 per share.[20] According to the merger announcement, O2, which provided mobile phone services in the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Isle of Man (uniquely to the O2 group Manx Telecom also offered fixed-line services), retained its name and continued to be based in the United Kingdom, keeping both the brand and the management team. The merger became unconditional on 23 January 2006 and O2 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Telefónica. Manx Telecom was sold by Telefónica Europe in June 2010.
In January 2015, Li Ka-shing entered into talks with Telefónica to buy O2 for around £10.25 billion, aiming to merge it with his subsidiary Three.[21] The acquisition was officially blocked by the European Commission on 11 May 2016, which argued that the merger would reduce consumer choice and lead to a higher cost of services[22] Telefónica began to seek a stock market flotation of the business instead.[23]
Austria
In May 2022, Telefónica announced the acquisition of the European cloud-based services specialist and cloud Microsoft Dynamics partner BE-terna. The deal, worth €350 million, included 1,000 staff, AI, extended service capabilities across Europe, and a cybersecurity services division. The deal aimed to see Telefónica increase its geographic scale and aid its digital capabilities.[26]
France
In France, since 2011, Telefónica has a joint venture with the French telecommunications company Bouygues Telecom, part of the Bouygues group, to offer global telecommunication services packages to multinational companies. This cooperation was expanded in June 2015 through the creation of a separate joint venture company named Telefónica Global Solutions France, with its own marketing and sales teams offering Telefónica and Bouygues Telecom services packages to corporations.[27]
Americas
Telefónica operates the Movistar mobile phone brand throughout Latin America and the Vivo in Brazil. In Mexico it occupies a distant second place and it is the largest in Chile, Venezuela, and Brazil. Since 2019, Telefónica has divested the majority of its Latin American business in order to focus on the core markets Spain, Germany, UK and Brazil and add up to €2 billion in revenue with this programme.[28]
Brazil
Telefónica's largest fixed-line operation in South America is in Brazil, where it provides broadband, local and long-distance telephone services in the aforementioned state, which alone represents the highest GDP of South America. It also owns a majority stake in the Brazilian mobile operator Vivo, having agreed on 28 July 2010 to buy Portugal Telecom's stake in the firm for €7.5 billion, after increasing its original offer by €1.8 billion over three months of incident-rich negotiations.[29] The Telefónica group has been in the country since 1996 when it acquired CRT, a fixed-line and mobile operator in the southern part of the country.
Brazil
Telefónica's largest fixed-line operation in South America is in Brazil, where it provides broadband, local and long-distance telephone services in the aforementioned state, which alone represents the highest GDP of South America. It also owns a majority stake in the Brazilian mobile operator Vivo, having agreed on 28 July 2010 to buy Portugal Telecom's stake in the firm for €7.5 billion, after increasing its original offer by €1.8 billion over three months of incident-rich negotiations.[29] The Telefónica group has been in the country since 1996 when it acquired CRT, a fixed-line and mobile operator in the southern part of the country. The landline division is currently part of Oi. In July 1998, acquired Telesp, the telephony operator of the Telebrás system in the state of São Paulo, forming Telefônica Brasil.[30]
In June 2009, after four big "blackouts" on Telefónica's broadband "Speedy", ANATEL ordered Telefónica to stop sales of its broadband service until improvements were made on the infrastructure to provide better-quality service.
Dominican Republic
In 2000, Telefónica acquired a 26.5% stake in Tricom when it purchased part of the shares Motorola had obtained in 1993.[32]
Venezuela
In late 2004, Telefónica took over the operations of Telcel Bellsouth in Venezuela, the first and largest mobile operator in the South American country at the time. After re-branding as Movistar, its CDMA2000 EvDO was progressively replaced by a GSM UMTS 3G network. Telefónica is currently rolling out 4G LTE in the country.
United States
Based in Miami, Florida, Telefónica USA, Inc. provides services to U.S.-based multinational companies that have operations in Latin America and Europe. Telefónica USA also operates the KeyCenter, a data center in Miami built to withstand category 5 hurricanes,[33] from where the company supports Business Continuity and IT services for Enterprise customers in South Florida.
Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, Telefónica has presence through Telefónica Empresas, Telefónica Larga Distancia – TLD, Telefónica International Wholesale Services – TIWS (formerly Emergia) and Atento. Telefónica Moviles, through its Movistar brand, had presence in Puerto Rico until mid-2007 but it sold the Puerto Rico network to a private equity group who renamed it Open Mobile.
Asia
China
In 2009, China Unicom agreed to a $1 billion cross-holding with Telefónica.[34] In January 2011, the two partners agreed to a further $500 million tie-up in each other. Following completion in late 2011, Telefónica will hold a 9.7% stake in China Unicom, and China Unicom will own 1.4% of the Spanish firm.[35]
In 2018, China Unicom and Telefónica establish a new partnership to combine their services and networks in the internet of things, so as to enable its clients to deploy IoT products and services in China, Europe and Latin America with a single global IoT SIM card.[36]
China
In 2009, China Unicom agreed to a $1 billion cross-holding with Telefónica.[34] In January 2011, the two partners agreed to a further $500 million tie-up in each other. Following completion in late 2011, Telefónica will hold a 9.7% stake in China Unicom, and China Unicom will own 1.4% of the Spanish firm.[35]
In 2018, China Unicom and Telefónica establish a new partnership to combine their services and networks in the internet of things, so as to enable its clients to deploy IoT products and services in China, Europe and Latin America with a single global IoT SIM card.[36]
