Jose Maria Alvarez-Palletepresident of Phoneassured that the economy of Europe It is falling behind in terms of innovation, which makes it lose all relevance on the international scene and is being supplanted by other blocs, the director said in his speech at an event at 21st Century Club in which OKDIARIO participated. The manager showed his concern about the situation of the continent and its immediate future.
“Europe has lost its relevance. “It used to be the cradle of innovation,” Pallete laments. The economist illustrated the European disaster through his own activity: “In my sector, the norm 2G and the 3G They were Europeans. However, neither of them 4G nor the 5G “They are now.”
4G and 5G standards are established by international organizations such as 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), which is developing the technical specifications for both technologies, and the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), which sets minimum requirements for mobile networks, such as speed and capacity.
These organizations work with governments, telecommunications operators and manufacturers to ensure that standards are global and compatible across different regions.
Decline of new technologies
USAthrough Verizonwas a leader in the deployment of a large-scale 4G network in 2010. Japan And South Korea They have been quick adopters, with companies such as NTT DoCoMo and SK Telecom leading the Asian market.
Regarding 5G, deployment began in 2019, with South Korea* leading the way. Major Korean carriers launched nationwide 5G networks in April 2019, becoming the first country to do so. The United States also deployed 5G networks in urban areas in the same year. Chinaone of the largest telecommunications markets, began rolling out 5G networks on a large scale the same year, becoming a global leader in the technology.
The president of Telefónica therefore has reason to worry about the economy, because in these areas Europe has lost its importance and is not a pioneer in these areas. new technologies.
Telefónica on the European economy
However, Pallete insists that Europe’s setback “has not only happened in telecommunications”. “There is no European company among the most innovative in the world, nor among the largest in the world,” he warns.
“Europe has lost its relevance. The United States, China and the Middle East have taken over. “Europe is no longer important,” warns the president of Telefónica.
“Europe has lost its relevance. The United States, China and the Middle East have taken over. “Europe is no longer important,” the leader laments.
“Among the 61 most critical technologies in the world, the Chinese monopoly is leading in 50 of them. From rare earth materials, electric batteries, supercapacitor sensors and hydrogen. In other words, we are missing the boat in the era of innovation,” the economist says.
“The United States is the second country, but no European country is an individual leader. And this is linked to the reason why we have been governed by rules from the last century. The telecommunications sector is governed as when it was in a monopoly situation,” he explains.
To solve this situation, Pallete insists on the need for legislative changes: “Innovation born in Europe, Asia or Latin America emigrates to the United States because the regulatory and financial conditions are in place for it to succeed. “It makes no sense, but regulation imposes this because the theory of competition believes that it is better to have more antennas on each roof than to have more innovation.”
“In Europe, we serve an average of 5 million people. In China, they serve an average of almost 500 million people. In this world, scale matters and Europe has chosen fragmentation. The competition theory “It has become obsolete and that is why, at Telefónica, we have been saying for more than eight years that Europe must decide in this world of titans,” he says.
