During his intervention in the inaugural session of the Mobile World Congress, which started in Barcelona today, César Alierta insisted on the need to reposition operators in the value chain and demanded a level playing field for all the agents. "It is not sustainable to invest more in handsets than in networks or to pay enormous amounts in taxes and spectrum whilst demanding quicker roll-out of new generation networks,” he said. He acknowledged, in this respect, the change in the new European regulatory policy, which proposes a more positive scenario for fibre deployment and recognises the risk assumed by the operators who invest, although changes need to go faster.

César Alierta explained how Telefónica is already driving the change in the ecosystem implementing new sales models and breaking taboos in network deployment to offer an enhanced customer experience and to modify the market dynamics. He thereby gave some examples of how Telefónica is working to write the rules of the new ecosystem to foster a sustainable model and to offer customers the best of the digital world. Telefónica wants to earn the trust of its customers, he said, with simpler and transparent offers that cover their demands. He highlighted the launch of ground-breaking convergence offers, such as Movistar Fusión, the reduction or elimination of subsidies versus financing of handsets and Telefónica's most recent agreements in network sharing, co-investment in fibre deployment or international roaming in order to offer the best service to its clients. He also stressed the relevance of the launch of Firefox OS in support for an open, private, secure and transparent Internet which is “the answer for the Internet to become the platform, introducing open standards and giving greater choice and flexibility to both consumers and developers which is a major step to bring balance back to the sector”.

Telefónica SA