Well Telefonica is a National institution almost. Enel is the owner of Endessa yet that company still functions as Endessa. So if A&T owned TEF who would notice the difference ? Maybe the consumer -but TEF is not cheap particularly and it is bureaucratic and inefficient -it pays good dividends though to shareholders- but for how much longer? Why did Rahoy block it ? Pure Nationalism? Maybe replacing one mega company with another foreign one is not what Spain needs. It needs more liberalisation to improve competition. If three came to Spain that would cause a shake up. You can buy 12GB for £81 in the UK cash over r the counter – no direct debit in your bank account and no 101 number to try to speak to someone in Madrid . I read TEF are selling their Irish 02 unit -suggests they are trying to draw down their debt. All these telecoms have massive debt and the reason they can massage these levels has in past been near monopolies of captive customers but with the liberalisation process it is arguable TEF would have been better dumping its debt on someone else so maybe we will not have heard the end of this ?
