Telefónica’s having a busy week: investors were less than impressed by its recent Capital Markets Day which has been followed by what looks like decisive action
Hard on the heels of its Capital Markets Day which failed to impress investors, the Spanish business newspaper Expansión reports the group is looking to ditch at least 6,000 jobs – most of them in Spain. At the event, the group CEO Marc Murtra (pictured) announced a halving the dividend: the group’s shares have lost about 15% of their value this year.
Another meeting with unions is to be held next Tuesday to discuss the proposed redundancies which apparently are to be charged to the current financial year. It seems management hopes many of the job losses will come from voluntary redundancies.
Murtra, who was appointed by the Spanish state in January, in a boardroom coup, has previously stated that Telefónica has suffered from “an aversion to making tough decisions”, having too complex a structure, excessive debt and too much short-termism.
Telcos the world over are looking to reduce their workforces: Verizon’s new CEO (who also was appointed abruptly) announced 15,000 jobs are to go while in Europe BT’s CEO said she will erradicate up to 40,000 jobs by the end of the decade (again continuing a trend set by her predecessor) and Liberty Global (operating under the Virgin Media O2 brand in the UK) is looking to shed hundreds of jobs.
Telefónica, Vodafone to sell JV stake
Telefónica and Vodafone are to sell a 40% stake in the joint venture that was formalised earlier this year, Fiberpass in which Telefonica holds 63% and Vodafone 37%.
The investment company AXA IM Alts will acquire the stake for an undisclosed sum. Vodafone Spain is selling a 32% chunk, meaning it will retain 5% after the transaction. According to its owner, Zegona Communications, this will raise €400 million.
Telefónica will retain a 55% controlling stake in Fiberpass, with Telefónica Spain Espana holding 30% and Telefónica Infra 25%.
Telefónica Germany extends Nokia contract
Telefónica Germany has extended its contract with Nokia to 2030. The vendor is to modernise and upgrade its nationwide RAN using Nokia’s Cloud RAN solutions. Nokia say its solutions will also support Telefónica in transforming operations and network performance using AI.
Nokia will supply its AirScale RAN portfolio, including Habrok Massive MIMO radios for the n78 spectrum band, Pandion multi-band remote radio heads, and AirScale Radio small cell solutions. Nokia claims these technologies “will ensure comprehensive coverage and seamless indoor connectivity while driving efficiency and scalability. Additionally, Nokia will provide its latest baseband solutions to enhance Telefónica’s 5G network performance and reliability”.
The deployment will also include Nokia’s Interleaved Passive Active Antenna (IPAA+) solution, simplifying site design and accelerating 5G rollout. The contract includes maintenance and network optimization services.
Telefónica will continue to use Nokia’s AI-powered network management solution, MantaRay NM, which supports purpose-built RAN and Cloud RAN, including data centre hardware and cloud infrastructure. It provides operation and maintenance capabilities for network elements in core, radio, and transport networks, for managing physical network elements as well as NFVs.
This is the first step towards Telefónica Germany’s network achieving level 4 automation, using AI-powered orchestration solutions.
