H.M. the King joins Telefónica in its Centenary celebrations

His Majesty King Felipe VI has joined Telefónica in the celebration of its Centenary, a milestone that the company reaches today, with his presence in a commemorative video that reviews the history of the company since its foundation in 1924.

This journey through Telefónica’s history highlights the profound transformation that Spanish society and the Spanish economy have undergone over the last 100 years, in which the company has been a direct witness and main player in this modernization. During the video, Don Felipe recreates, together with the company, the historic moment when his great-grandfather Don Alfonso XIII inaugurated Telefónica’s headquarters in Madrid’s Gran Vía.

At that time, H.M. King Alfonso XIII watched the growth of Madrid from the terrace of the Telefónica building on Gran Vía with Estanislao de Urquijo, who was the company’s chairman. Today, Don Felipe appears next to the current chairman of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete. 100 years ago, the King’s call to the President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, opened a new era of communication in Spain; and on this occasion Don Felipe glimpses Telefónica’s bid to lead the digital era with the switch-on of its intelligent telecommunications network, the most state-of-the-art in Europe and one of the best in the world, after saying goodbye to the legacy of copper.