Telefónica
telecommunications company based in Madrid, Spain
Telefónica, S.A. (Spanish pronunciation: [teleˈfonika]) is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company. It has headquarters as well as a registered office in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadband, and subscription television, operating in Europe and the Americas.
Along with its Telefónica brand, it also trades as Movistar, O2, and Vivo. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. On 15 April 2012, Telefónica shut down TVA and Ajacto, which unified the brand into Vivo.
History
The company was created in Madrid in 1924, as Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España (CTNE), with ITT among its major shareholders. In 1945, the state acquired by law a share of 79.6% of the company, later diluted by a capital increase in 1967.
Until the liberalization of the telecom market in 1997, Telefónica was the only telephone operator in Spain, where it retained a dominant position.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Telefónica” is telecommunications company based in Madrid, Spain. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Telefónica, telecommunications and company, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “telecommunications company based in Madrid, Spain” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q160229. VIAF identifies the subject as 156850698. The Library of Congress control number is n50031438. 3 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012, 1924, 1945 and 1967.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Telefónica”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Telefónica primary sources, Telefónica archive and Telefónica research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Telefónica”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Telefónica” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.