Spanish telecom Telefónica, which serves 23 million clients in Mexico below the Movistar model, will withdraw from the Mexican market to concentrate on its European enterprise.
The departure doubles down on Telefónica’s strategic plan, often known as Rework & Develop, which focuses on strengthening operations in Spain, Germany and the UK between 2026 and 2030.
Telefónica additionally plans to exit the Chile and Venezuela markets and is in “a complicated state of exiting” Colombia, in keeping with the agency’s CEO Marc Murtra. It has already offered its operations in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay and Ecuador.
“We’re going to depart Latin America,” Murtra stated throughout a convention during which he offered Telefónica’s monetary outcomes.
No particular exit date has been said for the three remaining Latin American international locations, together with Mexico, in order to not intervene with negotiations with potential patrons, in keeping with Murtra.
The income of Telefónica’s Latin America unit has fallen in latest quarters, with a 3.6% lower within the third quarter (Q3) of 2025 in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months. Nonetheless, Telefónica Movistar México’s Q3 outcomes had been optimistic, as service revenues grew 2.7%.
Whereas Telefónica’s Movistar has a powerful person base in Mexico, its market share has fallen lately as a result of historic dominance of different firms, in addition to the rising reputation of cell digital community operators (MVNOs).
On the finish of Q3 of 2024, Mexico’s cell market consisted of 148.3 million traces, 56.18% of which belonged to Telcel, 15% to AT&T and 14.57% to Telefónica. In the meantime, MVNOs contributed 14.22% of the market share.
It’s at present unclear what’s going to occur to the tens of millions of Movistar customers as soon as the corporate leaves the Mexican market.
Analysts, nevertheless, count on that Movistar Mexico customers will probably be robotically transferred to Virgin Cell’s community, permitting them to maintain their cellphone quantity and SIM card, as has been the case with different Latin American markets the place Telefónica has withdrawn companies.
With experiences from La Jornada and Wired
Keep forward of the curve with NextBusiness 24. Discover extra tales, subscribe to our e-newsletter, and be a part of our rising group at nextbusiness24.com