Telefonica O2 Czech Republic, a.s. : Telefónica to immerse itself into the dark for an hour

On the last day of March Telefónica Czech Republic will switch off the lighting of its buildings. Once again, the company will support the biggest global climate change initiative - the Earth Hour, held annually on the last Saturday in March. Telefónica CR's participation in the campaign will not affect the quality of provided services in any manner.

" At the set time, we will turn off all logos on buildings and switch off or dim out all lights in stores and offices. Thus, we will state that the issues of energies and environment protection are part of our corporate culture and that we are not inattentive to the future of our planet," said Petra Šebo, Telefónica Czech Republic's Corporate Responsibility Specialist.

Telefónica Czech Republic wants to set an example in the field of energy savings, and is therefore calling upon the public and its employees within this one-off campaign to save energy also in mobile phone usage. " All you have to do is observe several basic rules. One of them is to unplug the recharger from the socket after recharging. It is estimated that 95% of recharging energy is wasted," Petra Šebo adds. Other rules include e.g. switching the mobile phone off for the night, switching off of unneeded and above-standard services, such as Bluetooth, WIFI, GPS and IR, using ringing without vibration or prevention of device overheating.

The Earth Hour is a global happening that connects municipalities, companies and individuals who think about environment and climate change issues. The happening involves switching all lighting possible symbolically for one hour. The global campaign is organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). In the Czech Republic, it is coordinated by Ecological Institute Veronica.

Contacts
Hany Farghali
Spokesperson
Telefónica Czech Republic, a.s.
public.relations.cz@o2.com
tel: +420 606 02 02 02

Telefónica Czech Republic is a major integrated operator in the Czech Republic. It is now operating almost seven million lines, both fixed and mobile, making it one of the world's leading providers of fully converged services. The organization offers the most comprehensive portfolio of voice and data services in this country. It is paying special attention to the exploitation of the growth potential, particularly in the data and Internet sector. Telefónica Czech Republic operates the largest fixed and mobile network including a 3rd generation network, CDMA (for data), and UMTS, enabling voice, data and video transmission. Telefónica Czech Republic is also a notable provider of ICT services.

Telefónica is one of the world's largest telecommunications operators by market capitalisation. Its activities are centred mainly on the fixed and mobile telephony businesses, while its broadband business is the key growth driver underpinning both. It operates in 25 countries and has a global customer base of almost 300 million. Telefónica's growth strategy is focused on the markets in which it has a strong foothold: Spain, Europe and Latin America. Telefónica is a 100% private sector company with its shares listed in Madrid and other stock exchanges and more than 1.5 million individual shareholders.