AT&T and CTIA bosses urge US to stay ahead of rival mobile markets

LIVE FROM CTIA SUPER MOBILITY WEEK, LAS VEGAS: The heads of US operator AT&T and industry association CTIA opened this morning’s keynote session with a plea for the country to ensure it keeps its position as a global market leader in mobile, particularly with the move to future 5G technology.

“We should be incredibly proud of where we are today but we need to continue to lead the globe,” urged Glenn Lurie, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Operations. “We must keep innovating.”

Lurie focused his talk on three areas: the need for innovation, participation and investment, citing data that suggests the US has invested more in mobile than any other industry, and also that the US has invested more in mobile technology than any other country.

Lurie claimed the US has more nationwide LTE networks covering populated areas than any other country, while the market has more wireless operators than any other nation. “97 per cent of the US population has a choice of three or more 4G LTE-based providers,” he said.

Turning to future network deployment, he stressed that the US “needs to deliver on 5G. We must invest in advanced capabilities and embrace open sourced, software-centric solutions.”

As usual, the issue of regulation was a topic of note in the keynote. “As we go forward we need support from our policy makers. We do without question need light-touch policy regulation. We need to avoid regulation for regulation’s sake. We need regulation that encourages the investment that has happened over the last 30 years. If that happens we can ensure the US continues to lead the globe.”

CTIA president and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker (pictured, left) was equally effusive.

“The next president must have an aggressive 5G plan. Every company has a mobile broadband strategy – so must our nation. We will not have these 5G services without the infrastructure.”

Echoing Lurie’s call, she stressed the need for the US “to remain the global leader in mobile.”

“We need to unlock the 5G playbook in the same way that worked so well in the past for 4G.”