8th June, 2008:

Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of Atlanta-based AT&T Mobility, was so excited about the company's faster wireless data speeds, he started talking about them the night before the company was prepared to make the announcement.

De la Vega, one of the main speakers at the GSM Association's two-day conference last week, touted his company's upgrade to 1.7 megabit-per-second downloads and 1.2 megabit-per-second uploads. Nor was he shy about how he thinks the wireless industry will change personal communication and business habits.

Before the conference started, the AJC talked to de la Vega about AT&T's place in the wireless world, what's next from its iPhone partnership with Apple, and what consumers should expect out of their cellphones in the future. His comments came before the company's archrival, Verizon Wireless, announced plans to buy Alltel.

Q: What does it mean to have the GSM Association's "Mobile Innovation Marketplace" conference in Atlanta?

A: GSMA is in my view the world's best mobile association. It's a worldwide association, an association that's focused on technology that covers 87 percent of the world's cellphones.

To have it in one of the most iconic places in Atlanta is great. Atlanta is one of the most connected wireless cities anywhere. It's a haven for wireless customers. I think it's a great combination.

Q: What is AT&T Mobility trying to get out of the conference?

A: Our strategy is to work with (association officials), partner with them, encourage them to help us continue to make this one of the most innovative industries in the world. We are taking what is a wireless handset and finding innovative ways to solve customers' problems or issues.

Wireless was all about voice, and now the wireless handset is doing more. Now you can mobilize people in ways that you could not before. You can do your work with your wireless handset, watch movies, navigate through traffic. What these devices can do we have just started to understand.

I think we're in the beginning stages of a wireless data revolution. These guys, if they can really put their innovation to work, can figure out how we can do more for our customers.

That's what this conference is all about: the wireless industry is very much an ecosystem. Not anyone can generate the innovation by themselves. You need a great broadband network, fast processors, big memories, and you have to find out how to make it easy. If you make it too complex, then customers will shy away from it.