BarcelonaTelefónica's chairman, Marc Murtra, took advantage of his speech at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Círculo de Economía (Economic Circle) to reiterate the need for a "single market" for telecommunications operators in Europe in order to compete with the US and China, a position he has championed since becoming chairman of Telefónica at the beginning of the year.
"In the United States, there are only three telecommunications operators, while in Europe, we have 41," Murtra reminded hundreds of businesspeople. "European operators are 26% slower than Asian and American ones," he explained. "These are figures that measure the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of fragmentation; in all these other places, there are only three telecommunications operators," Murtra explained.
"We are facing a paradox that is the result of being captured by our own synergies," Murtra criticized regarding the European market. "There must be ethical limitations, but the mental frameworks that hold us captive are more than 20 years old," he lamented.
In fact, as pro-European reports such as those by Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi indicate, there is often a feeling that the US invents, China copies, and Europe legislates. "What we observe, and what the Letta and Draghi reports also support, is that without large-scale companies we will not advance with new technologies, and the first step is telecommunications operators," Murtra noted. In this sense, he laments that the current fragmentation "does not allow for the scale" to develop, deploy, and maintain new technological innovations.
Telefónica defends itself against the blackout
Murtra hasn't escaped numerous questions from the public about the massive blackout that hit the entire Iberian Peninsula last Monday, despite initially not commenting. The president of Telefónica defended the operators' handling of the situation and explained that "the landline network remained quite good" for many hours. "Our mobile phone system is designed to withstand blackouts, but in massive blackouts like this, what happens is that the tower batteries run out, and also that everyone starts calling all at once," he explained. "We had no experience with a situation like this," he asserted.
Murtra explained that individuals couldn't access the internet due to the lack of power at home, but that government agencies, security forces, and hospitals did have connections. The mobile network didn't work because the tower batteries died and because of excessive network demand at the time of the shutdown. In any case, he emphasized that "the services that needed to be prioritized were prioritized" and explained that a crisis committee was established to monitor them.
Rumors of layoffs involving between 4,000 and 5,000 employees at Telefónica
Although Murtra has not commented on the matter, this Monday morning El Confidencial and El País reported that Telefónica is preparing a new redundancy plan (ERE) for between 4,000 and 5,000 people. However, sources at Telefónica indicate that they "do not comment on possible rumors or speculation," and the unions assert that they have not received "any communication, neither official nor unofficial, from the company that suggests a redundancy plan like the one being reported in the media."
However, it should be remembered that Telefónica is currently undergoing a restructuring process, along the lines initiated by Murtra's predecessor, José María Álvarez-Pallete, which resulted in the departure of more than 3,400 employees.
