Telefonica to cut mobile phone range to reduce costs

Telefónica will reduce its range of handsets as part of its efficiency drive, freeing it up to develop new products and services within its digital division, Reuters reports, citing Telefonica Digital CEO Matthew Key.

Telefónica has recently launched a restructuring process, creating two geographical divisions of Europe and Latin America, and two new operating units, with a digital division and a global resources unit. The global resources unit aims to increase company efficiency, with more central buying of equipment across the company to take advantage of its scale and prevent duplication.

According to Key, the group currently sold 240 handsets, with only 12 common in every market. The operator plans to reduce that number to below 100. Key’s digital division will bring together all of Telefonica’s digital projects and research and development, aiming to create new services and speed up the time it takes to get them to market. It will focus on such areas as digital advertising, financial services, cloud computing and machine to machine operations. Key also said that Telefónica plans to invest “not insignificant sums” to start up companies and hold academies to support new ideas and businesses around the world.

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