12 million active lines, a new boost to the rural plan, which covers an increasing number of towns and villages of ever smaller size, and thousands of installers working flat out to connect a Spain that is entering a new decade.

12 million lines

01

We are at the halfway point of Salvador Sánchez-Terán's short term in office. Spain is experiencing its first years of democracy and the demand for telephone lines is consolidating. All institutions and companies are getting telephones, and many households are getting telephones as well. It is the year of 12 million lines installed. The telephone set - the Góndola and Teide models were the most widespread - is starting to become a favourite among Spaniards. According to a survey from a few years earlier (1975), the public already preferred it to the record player... but not to the television set, the star of the living room in those years.

Second and most ambitious rural telephony plan implemented

02

Since its inception, Telefónica has understood service as something universal. Telephony - and later data - would be meaningless if it did not reach every corner. In 1981 the company embarked on its second and more ambitious rural telephony plan with the aim of reaching ever smaller and more remote villages. First, public telephony. At the least a telephone in the bar, or in the post office, or a booth in the square to call the doctor, for emergencies, to call the emigrant son. While the dream of connecting every home is coming true, the priority was to guarantee minimum communications for neighbours. And the struggles between villages to be the first to have a telephone were, of course, epic. Telefónica's installers could not keep up with the demand.

Implantamos el segundo y más ambicioso plan de telefonía rural

The value of anticipation

03

At the start of the decade, Telefónica shares in its annual report an interesting reflection on the future. In addition to the country's economic transformation, the company points to an unstoppable and profound technological change. We are moving towards the electronic era and a computerised society," says the letter from the chairman, Salvador Sánchez-Terán. This is an accelerated change and, for this reason, the company is certainly applying a policy of technological vanguard with the incorporation of innovations in telephone operations". A change that must be taken into account from a triple consideration: the quality of the service, the level of employment and the real possibilities of investment.