CdM | Telefónica (TEF) continues to make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it launched a decade ago and on Thursday announced that over the last ten years it has invested a total of €77 billion in the deployment of sustainable, resilient and high-quality infrastructure and services, ‘which have facilitated the inclusion of use and access, the creation of quality employment and the economic development of the societies in which it operates.’
‘For Telefónica, the Sustainable Development Goals represent a lever to strengthen our competitiveness and enrich our value proposition. Advancing in line with the SDGs contributes to the sustainability of the business, as well as to our transformation. In this context, responsible digitalisation becomes a key element in accelerating compliance,’ said Elena Valderrábano, Global Director of Sustainability (ESG) at Telefónica.
The SDGs comprise 17 goals, but the telecommunications company has focused mainly on number 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), making it the ‘cornerstone of its strategy’ and also ‘acting as an engine of growth in society’.
As the company explains, over the last 10 years it has sought to ‘ensure that communications networks are available to everyone in all regions, both urban and rural, as well as contributing to the provision of affordable and accessible digital technologies for all.’
Telefónica currently has almost 350 million accesses, not to mention that it has reached 81.4 million properties with fibre to the home (FTTH), and also has the largest ultra-broadband network deployment in the world after China.
It has also achieved 98% mobile coverage with 4G in its key markets and offers mobile broadband coverage in rural areas, such as 95% in Spain, 99% in Germany and 85% in Brazil.
However, Spain is undoubtedly the country with the company’s largest fibre deployment, ‘enabling digital transformation and the shutdown of the central copper network, leading Europe in broadband connections and positioning it as a benchmark for advanced connectivity’.
