AT&T Might Be Perilously Late To LTE Game, CEO Says They'll Be Ready
June 3, 2011
Much like the White Rabbit, AT&T is extremely late. In this case, though, the date is more of a timeline, and Ma Bell is way behind.
Ina Fried, reporting at All Things D's D9 conference, has posted a thorough transcript of Walt Mossberg's show-ending interview of AT&T CEO Ralph De La Vega.
While most of the discussion is tame and otherwise boilerplate, the big takeaway from the talk centers on De La Vega's admission that his company will not be immediately able to match Verizon's national LTE presence. From Fried's live-blog:
[De La Vega] notes that the company felt it had pretty good tech with HSPA+ so [it] didn’t need to move as fast as Verizon with LTE. That said, LTE is working well and AT&T expects to move quickly. “I think you will see us be very competitive with LTE,” he says. Walt: When will you catch up with Verizon? De La Vega: Within two to three years, LTE coverage will be indistinguishable.Of course, in our industry, two or three years is almost an eternity, and it's difficult -- as an AT&T customer -- to be too enthusiastic about the telecom giant's pacing plan, especially if its T-Mobile buyout doesn't go through. Still, De La Vega assures us that AT&T has
sufficient spectrum to have a big footprint and cover a major portion of the U.S. in LTE. We’re going to be fine whether the merger happens or not.”Besides, Verizon's LTE network is not yet implemented anywhere near me, and it's probably going to be quite a while 'til any company brings that tech to my neighborhood. And personally, until an LTE radio is actually inside my iPhone, none of this matters one single whit.
