Telefónica – Autonomous networks case study

Welcome to this series analysing network autonomy efforts by leading telcos worldwide. In this second edition, we put the spotlight on a leading multinational operator in the journey toward autonomous networks.

In the spotlight: Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the world’s largest operators. It is the incumbent operator in Spain and has consolidated or joint-owned subsidiaries operating mobile and fixed networks in Germany, the UK and nine Latin American countries. It earned group revenues of EUR41 billion in 2024, when it had 390 million customers. The aggregate autonomous network (AN) targets and metrics it has publicised relate to its operations in Brazil, Germany and Spain.

ANs are a major strategic priority for Telefónica. Overall, in our view, Telefónica’s AN ambitions correspond to an infraco business model: focused on connectivity, but evolving the network into a platform that can autonomously adapt to support innovative connectivity and AI use cases.

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Telefónica’s Autonomous Network Journey (ANJ) can be viewed as unifying and relying on four key transformation goals at the operator. It expresses these in terms of: 1) the Network (technology evolution, including open architectures, cloudification and softwarisation); 2) the Brain (becoming a data-driven organisation; systematic automation); 3) the Heart (process transformation); and 4) People (ways of working, culture, DevOps, and breaking down silos). The company clearly views these goals as imperative to ensure its survival and prosperity as a multinational Tier 1 operator: cost-efficient; sustainable; innovative; advancing digitisation and AI adoption across its markets; and able to capitalise on emerging growth opportunities.

Telefónica systematically audits the progress of its ANJ program, measured against the TM Forum’s framework, on a quarterly basis. It measures this in relation to each major network domain, all operational processes and five main KPIs: deployment (including launching of virtual as well as physical network elements); operations and maintenance (O&M); optimisation and configuration; planning; and testing. In each of its major markets – Brazil, Germany and Spain – AN projects are prioritised based on the differences in each country’s network and the processes offering the greatest likely gains. Learnings and methods are then shared across the group.

Assessment of Telefónica’s autonomy levels as per the TM Forum AN maturity model

Source: Telefónica

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David Martin

David Martin

Senior analyst and Telco cloud lead

David Martin has specialised in telco cloud at STL Partners since 2016, writing numerous strategic reports on different aspects of the topic. He also originated STL’s Telco Cloud Deployment Tracker: a major database of commercial telco cloud deployments by leading operators worldwide. He is a telecoms analyst of around 25 years’ experience, having also worked for leading analyst firms including the now Analysys Mason and Omdia. David obtained a First Class degree in French and German at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he also pursued doctoral studies in French.