Public Policy Blog

Last week, the European Commission (DG for Entreprise & Industry) finalised the selection of three business sectors that will be the focus of a new, year-long project to develop sector-specific guidance on the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, which forms part of the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The [...]

Many are the predictions those days in the Net concerning our sector and its perspectives for 2012, from how the telecom sector will evolve, to which services and technological trends will be the winners for next year, or how social networks will be positioned, what will be the IT “super themes” for 2012, etc…
This is a difficult and somersault exercise in a very dynamic and evolving sector such as the ICT & Telecom one. However, it is sure that some trends could be already detected.

Concerning the ICT public policy area, we could see the following issues as relevant as they are present in several international and public institutions agendas for 2012. Here are some of them:

The use of ICT solutions applied to different essential areas in urban environments such as transport, energy, building constructions, etc…is key to assure a determined sustainability and an adequate quality of life when living in big cities.

This is the idea existing behind the term “smart cities” and many initiatives are currently ongoing worldwide to transform cities into intelligent and more efficient metropolitan areas for the benefit of their citizens.

According to the UN Population Fund, probably at the end of this month, the World will reach the incredible number of 7 billion of people living on planet Earth….

And if we have a look at the ITU statistics, one third of the world´s population is currently online and there are currently more than 6 billion mobile subscriptions….

Amazing numbers describing the situation today, but how will be our World, our society just in less than ten years time?

On 28 September, during an event organized in Geneva (Switzerland) by the Onuart Foundation and the United Nations Spanish Global Compact Network, Telefónica and two other Spanish companies presented their corporate responsibility policies and good practices involving the management of human rights at the United Nations. The purpose of this event, entitled “Businesses and Human [...]

Today at 12h00, Fundación Telefónica is presenting in Barcelona the study “Mobile Communications and Economic and Social Development in Latin America” (Comunicaciones Móviles y Desarrollo Económico y Social en América Latina).

Do stakeholders trust in corporations? Only 10% of consumers in USA believe in what they say. Consumers do require companies to disclose details on what they do to asses the impact that their activity has on environment and society. Additionally, investors ask for information on sustainability issues. Transparency becomes a must for companies to recover [...]

Telefónica is one of the 54 multinationals that the United Nations has selected in January 2011 to constitute the Global Compact LEAD, a leadership platform for the promotion of sustainability in the world. These companies have been recognised as sustainable leaders in the global economy.  Three other large Spanish companies have joined the LEAD; these [...]