We reach an important agreement with Portugal Telecom to create the leading operator in Brazil, with almost 10 million customers. In addition, Rima is born in Spain, a pioneering network designed to host a fundamental service in these years: ADSL.

South America's largest mobile operator is born

01

Telefónica and Portugal Telecom reach an important agreement in 2001, involving the increase of Telefónica's stake in the Portuguese operator to 10%, and the increase of the latter's stake in the Spanish operator to 1.5%. And it means the creation of the leading operator in Latin America, with 9.3 million customers and valued at 1.7 trillion pesetas.

We need new networks for the Internet: RIMA is born

02

With the popularisation of ADSL in the early 2000s, a new network designed to accommodate this service and all that is to come soon became necessary. We are still at the dawn of broadband and fibre optics, but Telefónica knows there is no time to lose. The RIMA network was born in 2001 and is the first Spanish network ready for the Internet and also to continue serving companies. In pursuit of excellence, it was designed and built according to the "five nines requirement": a network that is totally reliable 99.999% of the time. All its management systems were centralised in the CNSO (National Centre for Operations Supervision), and it was a hugely ambitious and pioneering project among the world's large telcos.

The debut of a Formula 1 legend, Fernando Alonso

03

He was one of the youngest drivers in history to take part in a Formula 1 race up to that point, aged 19. Fernando Alonso, the Asturian driver, two-time World Champion (2005 and 2006) and Prince of Asturias Award winner, made his debut at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix at the wheel of his single-seater car with the Minardi team and with Telefónica.