VIDEO INTERVIEW: Glenn Lurie, AT&T’s mobility and consumer head, insists the US will not be overshadowed by Asia in the race towards 5G, as he laid down the vision of a mobile video future following the company’s $85 billion proposed deal for Time Warner.

Asia is widely touted to pip other mature markets, including Europe and the US, and bring 5G to market first, with some earmarking a launch as early as 2018, in time for the winter Olympic Games in South Korea.

Lurie, speaking at last week’s GSMA Mobility Live event in Atlanta, believes a lot of the hype around Asia is “good PR”, with the main goal for 5G at this stage centred around standards development, and then commercially launching the network.

He added he “feels very good about where we are as an industry, and I feel very good about AT&T being in the middle of that”.

Lurie was particular buoyant about AT&T’s deal for Time Warner, explaining that the main rationale goes hand in hand with the company’s vision for mobile growth.

“The future for us and the future for our customers is about video on a mobile device,” he said. “It’s about innovating quicker, and getting that content on any device, and also giving customers what they want and they are asking for. And obviously it’s about content. Content is king or queen and plays a big role, anything to do with video is where the world is going.”

Lurie also opened up on the company’s plans for DirecTV, a company it acquired last year, and AT&T’s activities in 4G LTE, “which still has a lot of life yet”.

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