César Alierta: “The digital revolution will not take place without the telecommunications sector”

The president of Telefónica recalls within the framework of the Mobile World Congress how digital technology has modified economic cycles and eliminated geographical borders, also altering society and the business world.

El presidente de Telefónica, César Alierta, ha señalado en el Mobile World Congress en Barcelona que el grado de digitalización de las distintas sociedades marcará necesariamente las diferencias en su nivel de desarrollo, que el impacto de la digitalización será positivo en innovación, productividad y empleo, y que esta revolución digital, sin embargo, no tendrá lugar sin la intervención del sector de las telecomunicaciones. “Son los operadores quienes están desplegando redes de ultra banda ancha gracias a inversiones enormes. Y son estas redes las que permiten que todo y todos estén conectados y las que generan inmensas oportunidades”, ha explicado.

Alierta has also emphasized the challenges faced by the sector itself and its need to have a scenario that balances all the forces that make up the Digital Ecosystem. “We defend a review of the different policies and regulations, which takes into account the entire Internet value chain, and which guarantees non-discrimination and equal rules of the game for all,” commented César Alierta.

He added that "we need to improve the levels of transparency and the tools that allow the user to have full control of their privacy, as well as also improve their levels of security when using the Internet. This is what we call Digital Trust." In short, he explained that Net Neutrality should basically consist of guaranteeing that users enjoy an open Internet experience and that, for this reason, the focus should be on Digital Neutrality.

In his participation in the inaugural session of the Mobile World Congress, the president of Telefónica has focused on the concept of Industrial Internet. He recalled how digital technology, which has modified economic cycles and eliminated geographical borders, has also altered society and the business world. And how precisely in the context of the Industrial Internet (which is born from the convergence of global industrial systems and new technologies and new levels of connectivity) a disruptive wave even more powerful than that derived from the Digital Revolution is expected.

“According to recent reports, in the next twenty years, the Industrial Internet will have incorporated into the global economy the equivalent in dollars of the current size of the United States economy and will have boosted GDP per capita by about a fifth,” explained Alierta, for whom globalization calls for greater productivity in all markets, including the Spanish one. Thus, with respect to Spain, César Alierta has recognized that “today it is one of the most globalized economies in the world, increasingly productive and more competitive.”

Positive figures

César Alierta has illustrated his intervention with current figures that show the speed of changes in the industry and with future forecasts. Thus, he recalled that 43% of the current population is connected to the Internet, that there are more than 780 million homes connected to fixed broadband and that there are 2.8 billion mobile accesses. However, it has acknowledged that any past growth rate pales in comparison to future growth expectations.

As stated, in 2020 90% of the population over 6 years old will have a mobile phone; approximately 90% of mobile connections will be mobile broadband; LTE coverage will be greater than 70%; mobile data traffic will increase by 10; and there will be 50 billion “connected things.”

“Pero la tecnología no es nada sin las personas, -ha asegurado el presidente de Telefónica-. Lo que importa es cómo puede mejorar la vida de las personas. La tecnología ha transformado nuestra manera de comunicarnos, de relacionarnos, de divertirnos, de comprar, de compartir y de aprender. Es por ello que pensamos que la tecnología debería estar abierta a todos, precisamente para que todos podamos disfrutar de este mundo fascinante”.