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116-607: Telefónica Ireland was a broadband and telecommunications provider in Ireland that traded under the O2 brand (typeset as O 2 ). O2 Ireland was previously called Esat Digifone when it was owned by Esat Telecommunications (and Telenor ) from 1997 to 2006. O2 Ireland became a subsidiary of Telefónica in 2006, after its parent company O2 in the United Kingdom was purchased. In June 2013, Hutchison Whampoa announced it would acquire

232-427: A cable modem on hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) wiring originally developed to carry television signals. Either fiber-optic or coaxial copper cable may connect a node to a customer's location at a connection known as a cable drop. Using a cable modem termination system , all nodes for cable subscribers in a neighborhood connect to a cable company's central office, known as the "head end." The cable company then connects to

348-494: A laptop or PDA . These services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A Wi-Fi hotspot need not be limited to a confined location since multiple ones combined can cover a whole campus or park, or even an entire city can be enabled. Additionally, mobile broadband access allows smartphones and other digital devices to connect to the Internet from any location from which a mobile phone call can be made, subject to

464-453: A 128 kbit/s service. Multiple ISDN-BRI lines can be bonded together to provide data rates above 128 kbit/s. Primary rate ISDN, known as ISDN-PRI, has 23 bearer channels (64 kbit/s each) for a combined data rate of 1.5 Mbit/s (US standard). An ISDN E1 (European standard) line has 30 bearer channels and a combined data rate of 1.9 Mbit/s. ISDN has been replaced by DSL technology, and it required special telephone switches at

580-625: A 9.7% stake in China Unicom, and China Unicom will own 1.4% of the Spanish firm. In 2018, China Unicom and Telefónica establish a new partnership to combine their services and networks in the internet of things, so as to enable their clients to deploy IoT products and services in China, Europe and Latin America with a single global IoT SIM card. In 2005, Telefónica bought Český Telecom (Czech Telecom),

696-544: A DS0 to provide data rates between 56 and 1500 kbit/s . T-carrier lines require special termination equipment such as Data service units that may be separate from or integrated into a router or switch and which may be purchased or leased from an ISP. In Japan the equivalent standard is J1/J3. In Europe, a slightly different standard, E-carrier , provides 32 user channels ( 64 kbit/s ) on an E1 ( 2.0 Mbit/s ) and 512 user channels or 16 E1s on an E3 ( 34.4 Mbit/s ). Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET, in

812-453: A better quality of service for time critical services even on extremely busy networks. However, overuse can lead to concerns about fairness and network neutrality or even charges of censorship , when some types of traffic are severely or completely blocked. An Internet blackout or outage can be caused by local signaling interruptions. Disruptions of submarine communications cables may cause blackouts or slowdowns to large areas, such as in

928-475: A bid for the entire share capital of Esat Telecom as a way of resolving the conflict. The bid was rejected by the majority shareholders of Esat Telecommunications who voted against the takeover. In January 2000, British Telecommunications counteracted Esat Telecom failed bid by placing its own bid to buy Telenor's shares in Digifone. In January 2000, British Telecommunications made a takeover offer for Telenor which

1044-624: A breach of the Data Protection Act at the Dublin District Court. In March 2011, it was revealed that Denis O'Brien made payments to the Minister for Communications, Michael Lowry, to aid Esat Digifone's licence bid. Internet access The availability of Internet access to the general public began with the commercialization of the early Internet in the early 1990s, and has grown with the availability of useful applications, such as

1160-510: A connection to the Internet through the telephone network. Unlike dial-up, DSL can operate using a single phone line without preventing normal use of the telephone line for voice phone calls. DSL uses the high frequencies, while the low (audible) frequencies of the line are left free for regular telephone communication. These frequency bands are subsequently separated by filters installed at the customer's premises. DSL originally stood for "digital subscriber loop". In telecommunications marketing,

1276-511: A cybersecurity services division. The deal aimed to see Telefonica increase its geographic scale and aid its digital capabilities. Telefónica is the second largest corporation in Spain, behind the Santander Group . It operates under the movistar and O2 brands with the first being the largest broadband and phone (both mobile and landlines) provider in Spain. Telefónica's FTTH network in Spain

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1392-427: A few hours. When the Internet is accessed using a modem, digital data is converted to analog for transmission over analog networks such as the telephone and cable networks. A computer or other device accessing the Internet would either be connected directly to a modem that communicates with an Internet service provider (ISP) or the modem's Internet connection would be shared via a LAN which provides access in

1508-491: A fixed-line and mobile operator in the southern part of the country. The landline division is currently part of Oi . In July 1998 acquired Telesp , the telephony operator of the Telebrás system in the state of São Paulo , forming Telefônica Brasil . In June 2009, after four big "blackouts" on Telefónica 's broadband "Speedy", ANATEL ordered Telefónica to stop sales of its broadband service until improvements were made on

1624-845: A full DS3. Higher data rates are delivered in OC-3c multiples of four providing OC-12c ( 622.080 Mbit/s ), OC-48c ( 2.488 Gbit/s ), OC-192c ( 9.953 Gbit/s ), and OC-768c ( 39.813 Gbit/s ). The "c" at the end of the OC labels stands for "concatenated" and indicates a single data stream rather than several multiplexed data streams. Optical transport network (OTN) may be used instead of SONET for higher data transmission speeds of up to 400 Gbit/s per OTN channel. The 1 , 10 , 40, and 100 Gigabit Ethernet IEEE standards (802.3) allow digital data to be delivered over copper wiring at distances to 100 m and over optical fiber at distances to 40 km . Cable Internet provides access using

1740-552: A limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building. Although a connection to a LAN may provide very high data-rates within the LAN, actual Internet access speed is limited by the upstream link to the ISP. LANs may be wired or wireless. Ethernet over twisted pair cabling and Wi-Fi are the two most common technologies used to build LANs today, but ARCNET , Token Ring , LocalTalk , FDDI , and other technologies were used in

1856-588: A merger with TELECOM. The company is now known as Telefónica - Telecom. Telefónica signed a contract for 15 years (extendable for 10 additional years) on 12 May 2011 with the government of Costa Rica . It started operations in 2011 under its Movistar branding. In 2000, Telefónica acquired a 26.5% stake in Tricom when it purchased part of the shares Motorola had obtained in 1993. After acquiring 100% of OTECEL S.A. (Bellsouth), Telefónica Móviles Ecuador started its operations on 14 October 2004 as Movistar. It

1972-409: A modem and a phone call placed over the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to connect to a pool of modems operated by an ISP. The modem converts a computer's digital signal into an analog signal that travels over a phone line's local loop until it reaches a telephone company's switching facilities or central office (CO) where it is switched to another phone line that connects to another modem at

2088-414: A replacement for T1 and Frame Relay lines for corporate and institutional customers, or offer carrier-grade Ethernet. The use of optical fiber offers much higher data rates over relatively longer distances. Most high-capacity Internet and cable television backbones already use fiber optic technology, with data switched to other technologies (DSL, cable, LTE) for final delivery to customers. Fiber optic

2204-654: A restructuring phase, implementing a number of cost-cutting measures which involved outsourcing internal divisions to external companies. O2's IT division was outsourced to IBM Ireland , while the Network Operations division was outsourced to BT Ireland ( who also run the network operations for Three Ireland ). The Network team outsource was limited to the Field Operations team along with some other support functions. The Network rollout team & Transmission team remained in-house to facilitate future network changes. It

2320-408: A service to become oversubscribed, resulting in congestion and poor performance. The TCP protocol includes flow-control mechanisms that automatically throttle back on the bandwidth being used during periods of network congestion . This is fair in the sense that all users who experience congestion receive less bandwidth, but it can be frustrating for customers and a major problem for ISPs. In some cases,

2436-577: A speed of 56  kbit/s , as they are primarily made using modems that operate at a maximum data rate of 56 kbit/s downstream (towards the end user) and 34 or 48 kbit/s upstream (toward the global Internet). Multilink dial-up provides increased bandwidth by channel bonding multiple dial-up connections and accessing them as a single data channel. It requires two or more modems, phone lines, and dial-up accounts, as well as an ISP that supports multilinking – and of course any line and data charges are also doubled. This inverse multiplexing option

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2552-676: Is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both 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. As well as the Telefónica brand, it also trades as Movistar , O2 , and Vivo . The company

2668-574: Is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index . On April 15, 2012, Telefónica shut down TVA and Ajacto, which unified the brand on the Vivo . The company was created in Madrid in 1924 as Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España (CTNE) with ITT as one of its major shareholders. In 1945, the state acquired by law a share of 79.6% of the company. This stake was diluted by a capital increase in 1967. Until

2784-609: Is a switched telephone service capable of transporting voice and digital data, and is one of the oldest Internet access methods. ISDN has been used for voice, video conferencing, and broadband data applications. ISDN was very popular in Europe, but less common in North America. Its use peaked in the late 1990s before the availability of DSL and cable modem technologies. Basic rate ISDN, known as ISDN-BRI, has two 64 kbit/s "bearer" or "B" channels. These channels can be used separately for voice or data calls or bonded together to provide

2900-484: Is capable of supporting applications such as high-definition television, as well as telephone services ( voice over IP ) and general Internet access, over a single physical connection. VDSL2 ( ITU-T G.993.2 ) is a second-generation version and an enhancement of VDSL. Approved in February 2006, it is able to provide data rates exceeding 100 Mbit/s simultaneously in both the upstream and downstream directions. However,

3016-485: Is considered a defense service provider and a strategic company, the Spanish government has a say in acquisitions and holdings between 5% and 10%. The major stockholders include: In May 2022, Telefonica announced the acquisition of the European cloud-based services specialist and cloud Microsoft Dynamics partner BE-terna. The deal worth €350 million includes 1,000 staff, AI, extended service capabilities across Europe, and

3132-516: Is immune to electromagnetic interference. In 2010, Australia began rolling out its National Broadband Network across the country using fiber-optic cables to 93 percent of Australian homes, schools, and businesses. The project was abandoned by the subsequent LNP government, in favor of a hybrid FTTN design, which turned out to be more expensive and introduced delays. Similar efforts are underway in Italy, Canada, India, and many other countries (see Fiber to

3248-1200: Is not readily available. Newer technologies being deployed for fixed (stationary) and mobile broadband access include WiMAX , LTE , and fixed wireless . Starting in roughly 2006, mobile broadband access is increasingly available at the consumer level using " 3G " and " 4G " technologies such as HSPA , EV-DO , HSPA+ , and LTE . In addition to access from home, school, and the workplace Internet access may be available from public places such as libraries and Internet cafés , where computers with Internet connections are available. Some libraries provide stations for physically connecting users' laptops to LANs. Wireless Internet access points are available in public places such as airport halls, in some cases just for brief use while standing. Some access points may also provide coin-operated computers. Various terms are used, such as "public Internet kiosk ", "public access terminal", and "Web payphone ". Many hotels also have public terminals, usually fee based. Coffee shops, shopping malls, and other venues increasingly offer wireless access to computer networks, referred to as hotspots , for users who bring their own wireless-enabled devices such as

3364-736: Is one of only three mobile operators in Ecuador. Telefónica in Ecuador has started offering 3G service from the second half of 2009. Telefónica started its operations in Panama in 2004 as Telefónica acquired 100% of Bellsouth Panama. Since then it has operated using the name Movistar for mobile services. It migrated from CDMA technology used by Bellsouth to GSM 850. It also offers 3G using UMTS 850 and UMTS 1900. In 2015 it launched LTE with coverage expanding in Panama City, Arraijan, Chorrera up to Buenaventura Beach. The Telefónica Group has been in

3480-453: Is related to Moore's law ), with the bandwidths of telecommunications networks rising from bits per second to terabits per second . Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just broadband, is simply defined as "Internet access that is always on, and faster than the traditional dial-up access" and so covers a wide range of technologies. The core of these broadband Internet technologies are complementary MOS (CMOS) digital circuits ,

3596-437: Is the biggest fixed-line operator and internet service provider in the country. The Telefónica Group has been in the country since 1989. The mobile business is run by Telefónica Móviles through a local subsidiary. On 26 October 2009, Telefónica Chile changed its name to Movistar , including cellphone, landline, satellite TV, and internet. On 18 April 2006, Telefónica 's president Cesar Alierta signed an agreement with

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3712-530: Is the most extensive fibre-to-home network in Europe, as of April 2016, and the shutdown plan for the legacy copper network is already in progress. Telefónica was the parent of Telefónica Deutschland, which held two alternative IP carriers. The two ISPs, mediaWays and HighwayOne merged in January 2003 after having been purchased by Telefónica in 2001 and February 2002 respectively. On 26 January 2006 Telefónica completed its £17.7 billion (€25.7 billion) acquisition of

3828-597: Is yet to have been implemented in real-world usage. Broadband cable access tends to service fewer business customers because existing television cable networks tend to service residential buildings; commercial buildings do not always include wiring for coaxial cable networks. In addition, because broadband cable subscribers share the same local line, communications may be intercepted by neighboring subscribers. Cable networks regularly provide encryption schemes for data traveling to and from customers, but these schemes may be thwarted. Digital subscriber line (DSL) service provides

3944-406: The 2008 submarine cable disruption . Less-developed countries are more vulnerable due to a small number of high-capacity links. Land cables are also vulnerable, as in 2011 when a woman digging for scrap metal severed most connectivity for the nation of Armenia. Internet blackouts affecting almost entire countries can be achieved by governments as a form of Internet censorship , as in the blockage of

4060-546: The ARPANET , which was funded by the US government to support projects within the government, at universities and research laboratories in the US, but grew over time to include most of the world's large universities and the research arms of many technology companies. Use by a wider audience only came in 1995 when restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic were lifted. In

4176-590: The Bouygues group, to offer global telecommunication services packages to multinational companies. This cooperation was expanded in June 2015 through the creation of a separate joint venture company named Telefónica Global Solutions France, with its own marketing and sales teams offering Telefónica and Bouygues Telecom services packages to corporations. Telefónica operates the Movistar mobile phone brand throughout Latin America and

4292-589: The CCITT standards body defined "broadband service" as requiring transmission channels capable of supporting bit rates greater than the primary rate which ranged from about 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s. A 2006 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report defined broadband as having download data transfer rates equal to or faster than 256 kbit/s. And in 2015 the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defined "Basic Broadband" as data transmission speeds of at least 25 Mbit/s downstream (from

4408-512: The Internet in Egypt , whereby approximately 93% of networks were without access in 2011 in an attempt to stop mobilization for anti-government protests . On April 25, 1997, due to a combination of human error and a software bug, an incorrect routing table at MAI Network Service (a Virginia Internet service provider ) propagated across backbone routers and caused major disruption to Internet traffic for

4524-730: The Minardi F1 Team in 1999 and 2000, including title sponsorship in 2000, as well a major sponsor of the Renault F1 Team from 2004 to 2006 until Fernando Alonso 's departure to McLaren in 2007, and were title sponsors of the Spanish Grand Prix from 2006 to 2010. Through its acquisition of O 2 , Telefónica also indirectly sponsored the BMW Sauber F1 Team . In the World Rally Championship , Telefónica sponsored

4640-575: The Moriarty Tribunal found that the awarding of the licence was influenced by payments made to Lowry by O'Brien. In 1999, Esat Telecom and Telenor began to dispute how Esat Digifone should be operated. Telenor removed the word Esat from the companies name, and began the attempted removal of Denis O'Brien as chairman of Digifone. Esat Telecom retaliated by threatening to take legal action against Telenor, and make repeated offers to buy Telenor's share of Digifone. In November 1999, Telenor placed

4756-545: The O 2 Active brand. In October 2005, O 2 Ireland launched a version of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service. The company held a UMTS licence, and was the third Irish operator to offer 3G services, after Vodafone Ireland and Three Ireland, offering services in some built-up areas in late 2006. In July 2007, O2 launched its mobile broadband offering in Ireland using HSDPA technology over its 3G network. They provided speeds of up to 7.2 Mbit/s and claimed to cover 90% of

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4872-603: The SEAT Sport WRC Team between 1998 and 2000, under both Movistar and Telefónica Movistar. Telefónica sponsored the Ford WRC Team in seasons 2000-2002 when Spanish rally driver Carlos Sainz drove for the team, and when Sainz moved to the Citroën WRC Team for 2003, Telefónica followed. The sponsorship was not continued into 2004, despite Sainz staying with the team. In the 2000 CART season , PPI Motorsports raced

4988-571: The Vivo in Brazil. In Mexico it occupies a distant second place and it is the largest in Chile , Venezuela , Brazil , and Peru . Telefónica plans to divest the majority of its Latin American business in order to focus on the core markets UK, Spain, Germany and Brazil and add €2 billion in revenue with this programme. Telefónica owns Telefónica de Argentina which is the largest fixed-line operator in

5104-545: The 1990s, the National Information Infrastructure initiative in the U.S. made broadband Internet access a public policy issue. In 2000, most Internet access to homes was provided using dial-up, while many businesses and schools were using broadband connections. In 2000 there were just under 150 million dial-up subscriptions in the 34 OECD countries and fewer than 20 million broadband subscriptions. By 2004, broadband had grown and dial-up had declined so that

5220-579: The Americas. O2 are the main sponsors of the England national rugby team . Teléfonica, through Movistar , was the title sponsor of Yamaha Motor Racing from 2014 to 2018, a motorcycle racing team in MotoGP . It was also the title sponsor of Suzuki's factory team from 2000 to 2002 Sito Pons' Honda team from 1997 to 1999 and Fausto Gresini's Honda team from 2003 to 2005. Within Formula One , Telefónica sponsored

5336-649: The BT Wireless division within BT, and was briefly rebranded simply Digifone . This branding lasted for less than six months. In 2001, the BT Wireless division became mmO2 plc , a separate company, through a demerger from BT. British Telecommunications shareholders received 1 BT Group and 1 mmO2 share for each British Telecommunications share they held. After the de-merger, most of mmO2's operations, including Digifone, were rebranded O2. mmO2 plc later became O2 plc and remained an independent company until 2005. On 31 October 2005 it

5452-593: The Brazilian competition authority since Telefónica and Telecom Italia, with Vivo and TIM Brasil respectively, are the two largest telephone companies competing in Brazil. Subsequently, Telefónica confirmed in September 2014 that it intended to sell its shares in Telecom Italia following the purchase of Global Village Telecom (GVT) in Brazil from Vivendi . Telefónica sold its shares in the business to Vivendi as part of

5568-551: The Colombian government to buy 50% and one share of the state-owned communications company, Colombia Telecomunicaciones (TELECOM). With this sale, Telefónica became the largest Colombian land-line operator, and also gained an important presence in the local, long-distance and broadband market. The mobile business is run by Telefónica Móviles through the brand movistar . It is unknown what will happen with their previous established subsidiary Telefónica Empresas, being most probable

5684-486: The Internet protocols and only provided terminal-to-host connections. The introduction of network access servers supporting the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) and later the point-to-point protocol (PPP) extended the Internet protocols and made the full range of Internet services available to dial-up users; although slower, due to the lower data rates available using dial-up. An important factor in

5800-560: The Internet to the user's computer ) and 3 Mbit/s upstream (from the user's computer to the Internet). The trend is to raise the threshold of the broadband definition as higher data rate services become available. The higher data rate dial-up modems and many broadband services are "asymmetric"—supporting much higher data rates for download (toward the user) than for upload (toward the Internet). Data rates, including those given in this article, are usually defined and advertised in terms of

5916-539: The Internet using a variety of means – usually fiber optic cable or digital satellite and microwave transmissions. Like DSL, broadband cable provides a continuous connection with an ISP. Downstream , the direction toward the user, bit rates can be as much as 1000  Mbit/s in some countries, with the use of DOCSIS 3.1. Upstream traffic, originating at the user, ranges from 384 kbit/s to more than 50 Mbit/s. DOCSIS 4.0 promises up to 10 Gbit/s downstream and 6 Gbit/s upstream, however this technology

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6032-614: The Irish arm of O2 for €780 million. O2 was merged into Hutchison Whampoa's subsidiary Three Ireland in March 2015. In 1995, the government , with Michael Lowry as Minister for Transport, Energy, and Communications , authorised a second mobile phone network, to compete with Eircell owned by the semi-state Telecom Éireann . The licence was awarded to Esat Digifone, a joint venture between Denis O'Brien 's company Esat Telecommunications and Norway's Telenor , which began operations in 1997. In2008,

6148-428: The Irish mobile phone market needed greater competition, and acknowledged that "tacit collusion possibly existed between O2 and Vodafone". In May 2007, O2 Ireland management announced that the entire O2 Ireland technical staff were to be outsourced to a single Managed Service Provider. The next month O2 customers got a busy signal or no dial tone at all when they tried to make calls due to a network glitch. The reason for

6264-580: The KeyCenter™, a data center in Miami built to withstand category 5 hurricanes, from where the company supports Business Continuity and IT services for Enterprise customers in South Florida. In 2009, China Unicom agreed to a $ 1 billion cross-holding with Telefónica . In January 2011, the two partners agreed to a further $ 500 million tie-up in each other. Following completion in late 2011, Telefónica will hold

6380-499: The O2 brand. It began providing services on 2 February 2007 under the name Telefónica O2 Slovakia, s.r.o. It initially launched providing only a prepaid service but in mid-2007 began to sell contract phones. The company was sold along with Telefónica Czech Republic to PPF. O2 in Ireland was purchased by Telefónica as part of its acquisition of O2 plc in the UK in 2005. Telefónica Ireland has become

6496-639: The Panamanian, Ecuadorian and Guatemalan operations of BellSouth in 2004 for US$ 1665 Million, followed by a rebranding to Movistar in 2005. The purchase was intended to help Telefónica focus on its largest markets, alleviating its debt. Since 2011, they are a sponsor of the Spanish UCI ProTour cycling team known as Movistar Team . In football, Teléfonica is an official sponsor for several national teams such as Spain ( Movistar+ ) in Europe, and Brazil ( vivo ), Mexico, Colombia, Peru, or Venezuela in

6612-624: The Spanish government announced plans to acquire a stake of up to 10% in Telefónica worth $ 2.2 billion through the state holding company SEPI . Telefónica is a 100% listed company with more than 1.5 million direct shareholders. Its share capital currently comprises 4.563.996.485 ordinary shares traded on the Spanish Stock Market (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, and Valencia) and on those in London , New York , Lima, and Buenos Aires . Because Telefónica

6728-475: The Sunday Independent in January 2006 showed the massive margins being earned by Vodafone and O2 in the country were costing Irish mobile phone users about €300m a year. If the mobile phone companies were to cut their Irish margins to the group average, O2 customers would end up paying €84.07 less every year (€7 a month less). The European Commission upheld a ruling by the Irish regulatory body, ComReg, that

6844-584: The U.S. and Canada) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH, in the rest of the world) are the standard multiplexing protocols used to carry high-data-rate digital bit-streams over optical fiber using lasers or highly coherent light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs). At lower transmission rates data can also be transferred via an electrical interface. The basic unit of framing is an OC-3c (optical) or STS-3c (electrical) which carries 155.520 Mbit/s . Thus an OC-3c will carry three OC-1 (51.84 Mbit/s) payloads each of which has enough capacity to include

6960-605: The UK's largest entertainment and telecommunication companies to rival the BT Group . As of the 1 June 2021, Virgin Media and O2 UK Ltd officially merged to form Virgin Media O2 , giving Telefónica a 50% stake in the new company, with the other 50% owned by Liberty Global . In France, since 2011, Telefónica has a joint venture with the French telecommunications company Bouygues Telecom , part of

7076-530: The UK-based operator O2 which also provided mobile phone services in Germany under the O2 brand. Following the purchase, Telefónica merged Telefónica Deutschland and O2 Germany to form the current business Telefónica Germany . Telefónica Germany, purchased competitor E-Plus on 1 October 2014. As part of the purchase, Telefónica reduced its stake in its subsidiary to 62.1%. Integration continues as of August 2015, but

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7192-400: The United Kingdom, keeping both the brand and the management team. The merger became unconditional on 23 January 2006 and O2 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Telefónica. Manx Telecom was sold by Telefónica Europe in June 2010. In January 2015, Li Ka-shing entered into talks with Telefónica to buy O2 for around £10.25 billion, aiming to merge it with his subsidiary Three . The acquisition

7308-744: The World Wide Web. In 1995, only 0.04 percent of the world's population had access, with well over half of those living in the United States and consumer use was through dial-up . By the first decade of the 21st century, many consumers in developed nations used faster broadband technology. By 2014, 41 percent of the world's population had access, broadband was almost ubiquitous worldwide, and global average connection speeds exceeded one megabit per second. Types of connections range from fixed cable home (such as DSL and fiber optic ) to mobile (via cellular ) and satellite . The Internet developed from

7424-647: The additional functionality to host a LAN so most Internet access today is through a LAN such as that created by a WiFi router connected to a modem or a combo modem router, often a very small LAN with just one or two devices attached. And while LANs are an important form of Internet access, this raises the question of how and at what data rate the LAN itself is connected to the rest of the global Internet. The technologies described below are used to make these connections, or in other words, how customers' modems ( Customer-premises equipment ) are most often connected to internet service providers (ISPs). Dial-up Internet access uses

7540-430: The aforementioned state, which alone represents the highest GDP of South America. It also owns a majority stake in the Brazilian mobile operator Vivo, having agreed on 28 July 2010 to buy Portugal Telecom 's stake in the firm for €7.5 billion, after increasing its original offer by €1.8 billion over three months of incident-rich negotiations. The Telefónica group has been in the country since 1996 when it acquired CRT,

7656-417: The amount of bandwidth actually available may fall below the threshold required to support a particular service such as video conferencing or streaming live video–effectively making the service unavailable. When traffic is particularly heavy, an ISP can deliberately throttle back the bandwidth available to classes of users or for particular services. This is known as traffic shaping and careful use can ensure

7772-429: The capabilities of that mobile network. The bit rates for dial-up modems range from as little as 110 bit/s in the late 1950s, to a maximum of from 33 to 64 kbit/s ( V.90 and V.92 ) in the late 1990s. Dial-up connections generally require the dedicated use of a telephone line. Data compression can boost the effective bit rate for a dial-up modem connection from 220 ( V.42bis ) to 320 ( V.44 ) kbit/s. However,

7888-521: The country since 1994 and owns the largest fixed-line operator in the country. The local subsidiary offers local, long-distance, and broadband services nationwide. The mobile business is run by Telefónica Móviles through a local subsidiary. The mobile telephone business goes by the name Movistar and competes with major provider Claro. Their main offices are located in Santa Beatriz on Av. Arequipa 1155. Since January 2011, Telefónica has operated in

8004-626: The country. It provides broadband, local and long-distance telephone services in southern part of the country as well as the Greater Buenos Aires area. The Telefónica Group has been in the country since 1990. The mobile business is run by Telefónica Móviles through Movistar , a local subsidiary. Telefónica 's largest fixed-line operation in South America is in Brazil , where it provides broadband, local and long-distance telephone services in

8120-465: The customer numbers of Vodafone Ireland. O2 was the second largest telecommunications provider in Ireland, with approximately 40% market share or 1.6 million customers. The company's STD prefix was 086, but following the introduction of full number portability, some O2 Irish mobile numbers featured prefixes starting 087, 085, 089 or 083, as customers may switch provider but keep their old phone number. The company provided WAP and GPRS services under

8236-561: The early to mid-1980s, most Internet access was from personal computers and workstations directly connected to local area networks (LANs) or from dial-up connections using modems and analog telephone lines . LANs typically operated at 10 Mbit/s while modem data-rates grew from 1200 bit/s in the early 1980s to 56 kbit/s by the late 1990s. Initially, dial-up connections were made from terminals or computers running terminal-emulation software to terminal servers on LANs. These dial-up connections did not support end-to-end use of

8352-514: The effectiveness of data compression is quite variable, depending on the type of data being sent, the condition of the telephone line, and a number of other factors. In reality, the overall data rate rarely exceeds 150 kbit/s. Broadband technologies supply considerably higher bit rates than dial-up, generally without disrupting regular telephone use. Various minimum data rates and maximum latencies have been used in definitions of broadband, ranging from 64 kbit/s up to 4.0 Mbit/s. In 1988

8468-573: The end user on optical fibers. The differences between the methods have mostly to do with just how close to the end user the delivery on fiber comes. All of these delivery methods are similar in function and architecture to hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) systems used to provide cable Internet access. Fiber internet connections to customers are either AON ( Active optical network ) or more commonly PON ( Passive optical network ). Examples of fiber optic internet access standards are G.984 (GPON, G-PON) and 10G-PON (XG-PON). ISPs may instead use Metro Ethernet as

8584-538: The former state-owned Czech phone operator which still dominates the Czech fixed-line market. As part of this deal Telefónica also gained its 100% subsidiary Eurotel , one of three mobile phone operators in the Czech Republic. Starting 1 July 2006, both companies were merged into one legal entity and renamed Telefónica O2 Czech Republic . In 2011, the company was renamed Telefónica Czech Republic and in 2013, it

8700-495: The glitch remained a mystery at the time because the company's spokesperson couldn't be reached by the media on her mobile, also seemingly affected by the problem. The Consumers' Association of Ireland lodged a complaint with the Competition Authority over a loophole used by O2 that allowed it to bombard customers with unwanted text messages. The telecoms lobby group ALTO criticised O2 Ireland for its decision to quadruple

8816-518: The infrastructure to provide better-quality service. After the release of sales of broadband internet in August 2009, ANATEL expects the company's service investments to keep on par with the sales. On 24 July 2010 Telefónica announced that the number of Speedy subscribers had exceeded three million people. Telefónica owns Telefónica Chile , formerly CTC (Compañía de Telecomunicaciones de Chile, formerly known as Compañía de Teléfonos de Chile) which

8932-454: The liberalization of the telecom market in 1997, Telefónica was the only telephone operator in Spain. It still holds a dominant position (over 75% in 2000). Nowadays, Telefónica is present in more than 20 countries around Europe and America. In 2023, Saudi Arabia's STC Group became Telefónica's largest shareholder, building a stake worth 2.1 billion euros ($ 2.23 billion) through shares and convertible financial instruments. In December 2023,

9048-588: The market under the Movistar brand. Telefónica in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico has presence through Telefónica Empresas, Telefónica Larga Distancia - TLD, Telefónica International Wholesale Services - TIWS (formerly Emergia) and Atento. Telefónica Moviles, through its Movistar brand, had presence in Puerto Rico until mid-2007 but they sold the Puerto Rico network to a private equity group who renamed it Open Mobile . In late 2004 Telefónica took over

9164-650: The maximum data rate is achieved at a range of about 300 meters and performance degrades as distance and loop attenuation increases. DSL Rings (DSLR) or Bonded DSL Rings is a ring topology that uses DSL technology over existing copper telephone wires to provide data rates of up to 400 Mbit/s. Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is one member of the Fiber-to-the-x (FTTx) family that includes Fiber-to-the-building or basement (FTTB), Fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP), Fiber-to-the-desk (FTTD), Fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC), and Fiber-to-the-node (FTTN). These methods all bring data closer to

9280-510: The maximum or peak download rate. In practice, these maximum data rates are not always reliably available to the customer. Actual end-to-end data rates can be lower due to a number of factors. In late June 2016, internet connection speeds averaged about 6 Mbit/s globally. Physical link quality can vary with distance and for wireless access with terrain, weather, building construction, antenna placement, and interference from other radio sources. Network bottlenecks may exist at points anywhere on

9396-403: The much hyped launch of Apple's latest model, owners of all phones on the O2 network discovered they could not access the internet at all due to a network failure. Further criticism came from iPhone customers regarding the continued failure of O2 to deploy Visual Voicemail. O2 was the only carrier in the world to launch the original iPhone without Visual Voicemail, one of its headline features. O2

9512-477: The now merged network is Germany's largest in customers. On 31 October 2005, O2 agreed to be taken over by Telefónica, with a cash offer of £17.7 billion, or £2 per share. According to the merger announcement, O2, which provided mobile phone services in the UK, Ireland , Germany and the Isle of Man (uniquely to the O2 group Manx Telecom also offered fixed-line services), retained its name and continued to be based in

9628-527: The number of subscriptions were roughly equal at 130 million each. In 2010, in the OECD countries, over 90% of the Internet access subscriptions used broadband, broadband had grown to more than 300 million subscriptions, and dial-up subscriptions had declined to fewer than 30 million. The broadband technologies in widest use are of digital subscriber line (DSL), ADSL , and cable Internet access . Newer technologies include VDSL and optical fiber extended closer to

9744-704: The operations of Telcel Bellsouth in Venezuela, the first and largest mobile operator in the South American country at the time. After re-branding as Movistar, its CDMA2000 EvDO was progressively replaced by a GSM UMTS 3G network. Telefónica is currently rolling out 4G LTE in the country. Based in Miami, Florida , Telefónica USA, Inc. provides services to U.S.-based multinational companies that have operations in Latin America and Europe. Telefónica USA also operates

9860-497: The past. Ethernet is the name of the IEEE 802.3 standard for physical LAN communication and Wi-Fi is a trade name for a wireless local area network (WLAN) that uses one of the IEEE 802.11 standards. Ethernet cables are interconnected via switches & routers. Wi-Fi networks are built using one or more wireless antenna called access points . Many "modems" ( cable modems , DSL gateways or Optical Network Terminals (ONTs)) provide

9976-614: The path from the end-user to the remote server or service being used and not just on the first or last link providing Internet access to the end-user. Users may share access over a common network infrastructure. Since most users do not use their full connection capacity all of the time, this aggregation strategy (known as contended service ) usually works well, and users can burst to their full data rate at least for brief periods. However, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and high-quality streaming video can require high data-rates for extended periods, which violates these assumptions and can cause

10092-442: The population on the least contended Irish 3G network following an upgrade in 2007. Speak Easy was the name of O2 Ireland's prepaid service. In 2007 they became the first Irish operator to offer free text messages to all Irish mobile numbers, although it only applied for weekends. However, in early 2008 they introduced a new tariff which offered unlimited free text messages to all networks at any time, for life. The term "speak easy"

10208-556: The premises by country). Power-line Internet , also known as Broadband over power lines (BPL), carries Internet data on a conductor that is also used for electric power transmission . Because of the extensive power line infrastructure already in place, this technology can provide people in rural and low population areas access to the Internet with little cost in terms of new transmission equipment, cables, or wires. Data rates are asymmetric and generally range from 256 kbit/s to 2.7 Mbit/s. Because these systems use parts of

10324-412: The radio spectrum allocated to other over-the-air communication services, interference between the services is a limiting factor in the introduction of power-line Internet systems. The IEEE P1901 standard specifies that all power-line protocols must detect existing usage and avoid interfering with it. Telef%C3%B3nica Telefónica , S.A. ( Spanish pronunciation: [teleˈfonika] )

10440-642: The rapid rise of Internet access speed has been advances in MOSFET (MOS transistor) technology. The MOSFET invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960 following Frosch and Derick discoveries, is the building block of the Internet telecommunications networks . The laser , originally demonstrated by Charles H. Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow in 1960, was adopted for MOS light-wave systems around 1980, which led to exponential growth of Internet bandwidth . Continuous MOSFET scaling has since led to online bandwidth doubling every 18 months ( Edholm's law , which

10556-408: The remote end of the connection. Operating on a single channel, a dial-up connection monopolizes the phone line and is one of the slowest methods of accessing the Internet. Dial-up is often the only form of Internet access available in rural areas as it requires no new infrastructure beyond the already existing telephone network, to connect to the Internet. Typically, dial-up connections do not exceed

10672-417: The revenue it generated from calls to the 1850 LoCall number. This is a fixed price, shared cost service used by charities and a number of public service bodies. The company was criticised for its monthly subscription fees levied on Irish users of the iPhone, as they represented poor value for money when compared with the services available to customers paying similar amounts in the UK. Less than 48 hours after

10788-456: The role, Hanway headed up the Consumer division of Telefónica in the Czech Republic, managing a team of over 4000 people across the retail, online and customer care functions. In July 2004 the company admitted overcharging 71,000 customers following a review of its systems. The disclosure meant that 136,535 O2 subscribers - more than 10 per cent of its customer base - were overcharged. Analysis by

10904-600: The sale of GVT in June 2015. After acquiring 100% of Paysandú S.A., Telefónica started its operations in Guatemala 1998 as Telefónica Movistar and just Telefónica for landlines. In 2004, acquired 100% of BellSouth Guatemala, relaunching mobile operations as movistar in 2005, with mobile services based on CDMA technology, in 2004 as Telefónica Movistar launch national service with GSM/GPRS technology, and CDMA 1x EV-DO for data. Telefónica Móviles Guatemala (renamed in 2005) offered services on UMTS / HSPA starting in June 2009, and it

11020-447: The second largest mobile phone operator in Ireland, operating a GSM/EDGE and high-speed HSPA+ wireless broadband network to residential and business customers through its "O2" brand. Telefónica Ireland also provide fixed broadband to business customers. It was announced on 24 June 2013 that Telefónica had agreed to sell its O2 Ireland mobile business for at least €780 million ($ 1 billion) in cash to Hutchison Whampoa 's subsidiary 3 . O2

11136-926: The service provider. Leased lines are dedicated lines used primarily by ISPs, business, and other large enterprises to connect LANs and campus networks to the Internet using the existing infrastructure of the public telephone network or other providers. Delivered using wire, optical fiber , and radio , leased lines are used to provide Internet access directly as well as the building blocks from which several other forms of Internet access are created. T-carrier technology dates to 1957 and provides data rates that range from 56 and 64 kbit/s ( DS0 ) to 1.5 Mbit/s ( DS1 or T1), to 45 Mbit/s ( DS3 or T3). A T1 line carries 24 voice or data channels (24 DS0s), so customers may use some channels for data and others for voice traffic or use all 24 channels for clear channel data. A DS3 (T3) line carries 28 DS1 (T1) channels. Fractional T1 lines are also available in multiples of

11252-511: The speed capabilities of which were extended with innovative design techniques. Broadband connections are typically made using a computer's built in Ethernet networking capabilities, or by using a NIC expansion card . Most broadband services provide a continuous "always on" connection; there is no dial-in process required, and it does not interfere with voice use of phone lines. Broadband provides improved access to Internet services such as: In

11368-607: The subscriber in both telephone and cable plants. Fiber-optic communication , while only recently being used in premises and to the curb schemes, has played a crucial role in enabling broadband Internet access by making transmission of information at very high data rates over longer distances much more cost-effective than copper wire technology. In areas not served by ADSL or cable, some community organizations and local governments are installing Wi-Fi networks. Wireless, satellite, and microwave Internet are often used in rural, undeveloped, or other hard to serve areas where wired Internet

11484-410: The term digital subscriber line is widely understood to mean asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), the most commonly installed variety of DSL. The data throughput of consumer DSL services typically ranges from 256 kbit/s to 20 Mbit/s in the direction to the customer (downstream), depending on DSL technology, line conditions, and service-level implementation. In ADSL, the data throughput in

11600-691: The top level of rugby in Ireland. They also sponsored the West Stand at Ireland's former home ground, Lansdowne Road . They were also the title sponsor of one of the country's most high-profile venue, "The O2", now renamed the " 3Arena ". They were title sponsor of the Aisling Foundation 's Ability Awards. Tony Hanway was Chief Executive of Telefónica Ireland from his appointment in September 2011 until March 2015. Hanway first joined Telefónica in Ireland in 2005 as Head of Customer Care, subsequently becoming Consumer Sales Director. Immediately prior to taking

11716-495: The transaction for the El Salvadoran operations to be sold to América Móvil were scrapped due to regulatory hurdles. In February 2019, Millicom announced the purchase of the Panamanian, Costa Rican and Nicaraguan operations of Telefónica for US$ 1,650 Million, with plans to phase out the Movistar brand from those markets within a year after purchase. The transaction was completed in August the same year. Telefónica had purchased

11832-593: The upstream direction, (i.e., in the direction to the service provider) is lower than that in the downstream direction (i.e. to the customer), hence the designation of asymmetric. With a symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL), the downstream and upstream data rates are equal. Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL or VHDSL, ITU G.993.1) is a digital subscriber line (DSL) standard approved in 2001 that provides data rates up to 52 Mbit/s downstream and 16 Mbit/s upstream over copper wires and up to 85 Mbit/s down- and upstream on coaxial cable. VDSL

11948-583: The years, O2 entered into some very high-profile sponsorship arrangements. In 1998 the then ESAT Digifone committed its support to the Hurlers & Footballers of Cork. They remained sponsors of Cork GAA for ten years. Another high-profile sponsorship agreement was their association with the Irish Rugby Football Union and the Ireland national team , which has been continued by Three. Building on their rugby links with Shannon RFU, O2 joined forces with

12064-469: Was announced that Telefónica would sell its stake in the company to PPF . Under the terms of the sale, the company was allowed to continue to trade under the O2 brand for a maximum of four years. In August 2017, the brand license agreement was extended to 2022, with a 5-year extension to 2027 available. During 2006, Telefónica won the tender to become the third mobile phone operator in Slovakia , under

12180-471: Was announced that Telefónica, S.A. , the Spanish telecommunications company, had made a recommended takeover bid for O 2 Ireland's parent company, O2 plc . This was then approved by shareholders and O 2 was officially purchased in mid February 2006. The O2 brand is now used in several countries for Telefónica's mobile operations outside Spain and Latin America , where Telefónica fixed line and mobile services are branded as Movistar . In January 2009, it

12296-515: Was announced that Hutchison Whampoa would acquire Telefónica 's Irish mobile operations for €780 million, to be merged into 3 Ireland upon completion of the deal. The deal was cleared by the EU in June 2014. On 15 July 2014, the acquisition was fully completed. On 2 March 2015 it was announced on social media that O2 Ireland and Three Ireland were merging. This change meant that Three Ireland had over 1.5 million customers on their network putting them up near

12412-457: Was backed by Esat Telecommunications shareholders. Esat Telecommunications became a wholly owned subsidiary of British Telecommunications and was delisted from the stock market. When BT acquired Esat, they began integrating the business along with its Northern Ireland subsidiary, BT (NI). This eventually became BT Ireland . However Esat Digifone was not part of the operations integrated with BT's existing Irish operations. Instead, it became part of

12528-451: Was briefly popular with some high-end users before ISDN, DSL and other technologies became available. Diamond and other vendors created special modems to support multilinking. The term broadband includes a broad range of technologies, all of which provide higher data rate access to the Internet. The following technologies use wires or cables in contrast to wireless broadband described later. Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

12644-429: Was deducted for the offer. Freedom Internet offered 1 GB of data and 350 any network texts. Same terms applied as per Freedom talk. In December 2013 the data allowance of 1 GB was increased to 7.5 GB which O2 advertised as Unlimited Internet. Along with the new price plan O2 also launched a vast amount of prepay addons such as Talk, Text, Data, International Talk and International text. In 2010, O2 underwent

12760-415: Was introduced when the company was branded as Esat Digifone The O2 Freedom plans were introduced in June 2013 which offered 2 main new price plans, Freedom talk and Freedom Internet. O2 was the first Irish operator to offer free calls to all networks at any time on prepay. This offer was Freedom Talk and gave customers Unlimited calls to all Irish mobiles and landlines which required a €20 top up of which €10

12876-423: Was merged into Hutchison Whampoa's subsidiary Three Ireland in March 2015. Telefónica currently owns 46% of Telco, the holding company that controls 22% of Telecom Italia , Italy's former government–owned telephone company. In late 2003, Telefónica announced its intention to acquire the entirety of Telco by January 2014, potentially becoming Telecom Italia's largest shareholder. The plan, was however challenged by

12992-427: Was more cost effective to retain these divisions in-house. In 2006 O2 chose Irish Autism Action as their charity of choice. The three-year deal involved sponsorship, creating awareness, using O2 staff to assist the charity and using technology developed by O2 to assist children affected by autism. In 2010, the company's charity of choice became Headstrong, a charity providing mental health support to young people. Over

13108-474: Was officially blocked by the European Commission on 11 May 2016, which argued that the merger would reduce consumer choice and lead to a higher cost of services Telefónica began to seek a stock market flotation of the business instead. Announced on 7 May 2020, Liberty Global owner of Virgin Media and Telefónica owner of O2, agreed to merge their U.K. businesses in a deal worth £31bn and form one of

13224-434: Was responsible for the highest number of registered judgments, which financially blacklists those people who do not pay their bills on time in August 2008. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints concerning advertisements by O2. In August 2010, O2 was warned by the telecoms watchdog, ComReg, that it could not move customers to online billing without their explicit agreement. In March 2011, O2 pleaded guilty to

13340-428: Was revealed that Ireland was nearly the most profitable market in the world for multinational mobile operators like O2. On 23 March 2009 Vodafone and O2's parent company Telefónica announced a deal to share their existing networks in Ireland and rollout future infrastructure jointly. On 6 April 2011 it was announced that Telefónica O2 Ireland and Eircom had agreed a new network sharing partnership. On 24 June 2013, it

13456-523: Was the last operator to launch commercial services on this technology, with coverage in all major cities in Guatemala. On 24 January 2019, América Móvil announced the that they will acquire both the Guatemalan and El Salvadoran operations of Telefónica for US$ 333 million and $ 315 million, respectively. The transaction would also acquire all Pay TV operations. The sale was eventually approved in Guatemala and would later become intergraded into Claro . However,

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