Telefónica Outlines Launch Plans for Firefox OS

- First Firefox OS devices to launch in Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Venezuela during mid- 2013 with initial launch devices from Alcatel One Touch, LG and ZTE.
- Customers to benefit from a beautiful, clean, intuitive, personalized and easy-to-use smartphone experience

Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, – Telefónica today named the first countries in which it will launch Firefox OS, the new, open mobile operating system from Mozilla. The first commercial handsets featuring Firefox OS will go on sale in Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Venezuela in mid-2013. Further launches are planned in both Europe and Latin America in late 2013 and 2014.

The first Firefox OS handsets to launch in these initial markets will be manufactured by Alcatel One Touch, LG and ZTE, featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon™ processor. Consumers will have a choice of competitively priced devices, backed by Telefónica’s richest data tariffs, enabling them to have a compelling and affordable internet experience. Telefónica is also in discussions with Huawei and other manufacturers to see how Firefox OS can be extended into even more devices.

Firefox OS marks a significant milestone for the mobile industry, enabling for the first time devices to be manufactured to totally open web standards. It provides an alternative to current, closed mobile ecosystems that lock consumers in.

Customers will benefit from everything they need from a smartphone out of the box, plus many added features including built-in cost controls, Facebook and Twitter integration, location-based services, the much-loved Firefox Web browser and a revolutionary new search capability. This delivers a deep and contextual search that allows customers to search both within apps and on the web at the same time. For example, search for a music artist and get results to buy songs, concert tickets or even listen to them instantly without the need to install any apps.

“2013 marks the start of a new phase in our industry, one that will be characterized by open standards,” said César Alierta, Chairman & CEO of Telefónica. “For Telefónica and the telco sector as a whole, Firefox OS is a hugely important strategic initiative to change the prevailing value chain in the digital world. It is a major step to bring balance back to the telco sector, an initiative with strong cross-industry support. I am very pleased that our customers in Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Venezuela will be amongst the first in the world to experience Firefox OS and I look forward to making it available to all Telefónica customers globally.”

“Firefox OS brings the freedom and unbounded innovation of the open Web to the mobile environment, removing the unnecessary restrictions of proprietary ecosystems,” said Gary Kovacs, CEO, Mozilla. "Telefónica has shared this vision from the very start of the Firefox OS project. They have been instrumental in making Firefox OS a reality and we look forward to bringing a new and exciting smartphone experience to their customers globally.”

Telefónica will back Firefox OS in each of its markets with compelling offers and promotions to deliver extra value to customers, such as zero rated access to social networks or instant messaging for instance. It has also worked closely with Mozilla to ensure a wide range of compelling content is available for customers through the Firefox Marketplace. This includes, AccuWeather, AirBnB, Box, Cut the Rope, Facebook, Nokia HERE, MTV Brasil, Pulse News, SoundCloud, SporTV, Terra, Time Out and Twitter as well as personally-tailored and local apps that are relevant to users in their respective regions.

Telefónica was joined today by 17 other mobile operators in supporting Firefox OS. This includes, América Móvil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telenor, Telstra, TMN and VimpelCom. The breadth of support demonstrates the cross-industry desire for a new, more open mobile ecosystem.

For developers, Firefox OS offers a solution to the discoverability, monetisation and fragmentation challenges they have on native systems. Mozilla and Telefónica have been working closely with the developer community to engage them in Firefox OS, holding a series of international app days in January and making developer preview test devices available in partnership with Geeksphone.

Full details of devices, pricing and tariffs will be announced in each market closer to launch.

To watch industry experts discuss the latest trends in the smartphone market, click here for the first episode of Digital Futures from Telefónica Digital.

About Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world in terms of market capitalization and number of customers. From this outstanding position in the industry, and with its mobile, fixed and broadband businesses as the key drivers of its growth, Telefónica has focused its strategy on becoming a leading company in the digital world.

The company has a significant presence in 24 countries and a customer base that amounts close to 314 million accesses around the world. Telefónica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy.

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.

For more information, please visit www.telefonica.com/digitalhub or follow Telefónical Digital on Twitter – @tefdigital


About Mozilla

Mozilla has been a pioneer and advocate for the Web for more than a decade. We create and promote open standards that enable innovation and advance the Web as a platform for all. Today, hundreds of millions of people worldwide use Mozilla Firefox to discover, experience and connect to the Web on computers, tablets and mobile phones. For more information please visit https://www.mozilla.org/mwc