The Chairman of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, said during the opening day of the 10th edition of South Summit, that the company “works to ensure that innovation finds its breeding ground in telecommunications networks” and that it remains committed to fulfilling its mission, with technological progress and the new opportunities it brings to society.
And to advance in this sense, he detailed how the company is opening network APIs to developers and how it continues to work on projects such as Wayra, innovation funds or the digital ecosystem in which the company itself is configured.
During his speech together with María Benjumea, founding president of South Summit, in the session ‘Accelerated innovation; a values driven change’, Álvarez-Pallete warned of the risks of inequality that these profound changes in society influenced by technology may entail, as people do not have the same access to the opportunities offered by the digital world. “It is key to manage the transition and not leave anyone behind”, he warned.
In this context, Álvarez-Pallete warned of the risks of inequality that these profound changes in society influenced by technology can bring, as people do not have the same possibilities of access to the opportunities offered by the digital world. “It is key to manage the transition and not leave anyone behind”, he warned.
“The Metaverse will be the most profound change the Internet has ever seen”
The chairman of Telefónica also drew attention to the change that the Metaverse is going to bring about in our lives, which “are going to move even further into the digital world”. “The Metaverse will be the most profound change the Internet has undergone since its birth,” he said. He added: “Now it is time to give a concrete purpose to all this technology, because it is people who give meaning to technology and not the other way around,” he said.
Álvarez-Pallete stressed in his talk that Telefónica will continue to play an essential role in this evolution of the Internet towards the Metaverse because new experiences will be possible thanks to the telcos’ networks: “None of this can exist without the super connectivity provided by 5G and fibre networks, and with key technologies such as Edge Computing, the cloud and of course cybersecurity, essential for the new digital world”.
Finally, Jose María Álvarez-Pallete recalled the great commitment of the company he chairs to innovation with the creation of the Global Innovation and Talent Hub, which aims to turn the Group’s headquarters into a large interconnected centre for 5G, AI, fibre, Edge Computing, Deep Learning, IoT, Cloud, Cybersecurity, Blockchain and video.
