Telefónica announced this Monday in the Mobile 2022 held in Barcelona an ambitious strategic plan to increase digital services in homes by the hand of Microsoft. The initiative contemplates the development and commercialization of computer services, digital transformation and connectivity. Chema Alonso (Chief Digital Officer of Telefónica) made this announcement during his speech at the Telefónica stand on the first day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which opened today. One of the areas of collaboration that the companies are exploring is the development of online games and the opening of new office automation services in the ‘smart tv’ and even the development of virtual environments (metaverses). Also the impulse of videoconferences.
“Nobody knows at the moment what the evolution of the metaverso from the gaming world, but Telefónica cannot remain on the sidelines”, explained Alonso, following narrating the global strategy that Telefónica has carried out in recent years. This design of virtual worlds opens the way to new services that have made Telefónica transit from from a telecommunications company to a provider of diversified digital services Alberto Granados, president of Microsoft in Spain, highlighted the strategic agreement reached with Telefónica, considering that it opens the way to a period of technological disruption and the “integration of Microsoft products in a safe home environment.
Telefónica has also announced the promotion of videoconferencing services and the integration of television in the telecommunications services of all households with fiber optics. Movistar HOme is key in this development. Last year, Telefónica announced the launch of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and the sale of Xbox consoles as part of the Movistar Fusión offer. Telefónica will also assess the opportunities in this field in other markets in which the company is present.
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Telefónica wants to extend the use of Microsoft 365 to other markets where it is present, following the agreement reached last year with Vivo in Brazil, which became one of the first operators in South America to offer a monthly subscription to Microsoft 365. In addition , the new alliance plans to facilitate access to LinkedIn Learning content on the Telefónica Movistar Plus+ platform. The expansion of the communication capabilities of Movistar Home with the integration of Microsoft Teams will be evaluated, turning the Telefónica device into the home communications center. This will allow users to connect to video conferences and make calls through Teams or Zoom easily using the device screen and with voice commands with the help of Aura. These video conferencing devices for the home have been available for a long time, but it is now that the company wants to boost its commercialization.
Telefónica’s great contribution to the agreement with Microsoft is, in addition to the speed of its networks, offering a secure environment to households in this transition towards sophisticated telephony services. Chema Alonso commented in his presentation: “We celebrate having reached a new level of collaboration in our strategic relationship with Microsoft to generate new opportunities and expand existing ones in the consumer, digital home and innovation space.” (UHD decoder, Movistar Plus+ and Movistar Home Voice Remote, ,) and services, not only communications (Zoom and Teams integrated into Movistar Home), but also services to manage the line (My Movistar) and control connectivity (Smart WiFi), cloud storage (Movistar Cloud), gaming (Xbox Game Pass Ultimate) or music (MovistarMúsica), etc.
