LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 NORTH AMERICA: Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobile & Business Solutions, used his keynote to highlight the importance of a regulatory model that will support future innovation in the mobile industry, warning against “predictive” decisions made in the fast-moving sector.

“One of the biggest enablers in any field, not just wireless, is freedom. The freedom to innovate, to disrupt existing business models, and the freedom to improve. We need the commercial flexibility and regulatory freedom to explore business opportunities and service models that can best serve our customers,” the executive said.

With much of the focus in the US currently on proposals related to net neutrality, unsurprisingly this was a centrepiece of his discussion.

“In 2010, the FCC adopted net neutrality rules that provided assurances about an open internet and also appropriately continued a very light-touch regulatory approach to wireless. This is the right balance, and the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. No matter how you measure it, the United States leads the world in wireless,” de la Vega noted.

“Regulators need to be careful before changing approaches now. Five years from now, we don’t want to find ourselves living behind the rest of the world because of predictive regulatory decisions made today to solve problems that don’t actually exist in the marketplace,” he continued.

“There is plenty of opportunities for regulators to correct problems if and when they arise, but to try to do so predictively in such a rapidly changing, complex and difficult environment is bound to result in mistakes that harm the very consumers that they are intended to protect and benefit,” de la Vega said.

The executive noted that AT&T has invested $119 billion in the last six years, “more than any other public company in the United States”.

He noted that while there are many growth spots in the market, in sectors such as home security and automation, automotive, and business mobility services, “accommodating all this growth and development will be a challenge for operators. Their future is going to require continued investment and innovation.”

“We are just scratching the surface of understanding the opportunities that are available to us, not just in the US, but globally,” he said.