Telefonica used a blog post to state that it is “more than convinced than ever about the digital opportunity”, after it announced a reorganisation that sees its Telefonica Digital unit integrated into the parent company.

While the operator group said last week that it intended to “incorporate digital offerings into all of its commercial activities”, some observers suggested that the closure of the dedicated digital unit indicated a lack of commitment to this path going forward.

On the Telefonica Digital site, it wrote: “This new structure has been established in order to reinforce Telefonica’s strategy of becoming a 100 per cent digital Telco. It has only been made possible by the success of Telefonica Digital over the past two and a half years, which has proved beyond question that there is huge growth potential in the digital world and that we can capture this growth.”

Telefonica set up Telefonica Digital in 2011, in a move that was seen as enabling it to develop new business lines beyond the constraints of a typical telco structure.

Under a restructure announced last week, Telefonica is integrating Telefonica Digital, along with its Europe and Latam operations, into a Global Corporate Centre, “thus simplifying the organisation”.

It said that Telefonica Digital has “duplicated its value [since being formed] and has achieved incremental revenue to reach a growth of nearly 20 per cent. It this way, it has become the seed for the Telefonica of the future”.

Matthew Key, who headed the Telefonica Digital unit, also appears to have been sidelined in the restructure. While Telefonica said that he will “continue to be linked to the group”, this appears to be solely through a director position at Telefonica UK.