This book represents an independent view about the evolution of Telefónica from its origins as an ITT subsidiary before World War II since its conversion into a large Spanish multinational in recent decades. Its all-encompassing perspective makes the booka required reading for those who are interested in how this company became a major player in current Latin American communication marketssss

Jacint Jordana, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

This brief monograph provides a timely assessment of the Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica....The book is important, for helping to address the relative dearth of English-language communications material on Central and South America....This monograph is also valuable thanks in part to the author's ready ability to use Spanish-language documents and source material that are often little known to scholars restricted to English-language archives. But it also underlines the pace of organizational as well as technical change in Latin telecommunication networks.

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)

This book provides an enormous service for scholars of global communication by filling a gap in our understanding of Telefónica, one of the world's major media conglomerates. Drawing on a wealth of sources, Martinez deftly charts the company's rise from a regional telecommunications firm to a global giant spanning all forms of old and new media. In doing so, she joins a new wave of scholarship that demonstrates the growing power of Spanish-language media in the world today.

Vincent Mosco, Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society, Queen's University

This book represents an independent view about the evolution of Telefónica from its origins as an ITT subsidiary before World War II since its conversion into a large Spanish multinational in recent decades. Its all-encompassing perspective makes the book a required reading for those who are interested in how this company became a major player in current Latin American communication markets

Jacint Jordana, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona