Engadget sat down with AT&T CEO, Ralph de la Vega, to discuss, the 700MHz spectrum auction in January, their partnership with Apple, and the cellphone business in general.
Engadget: I’m curious to know if you could tell me a little bit about the role that you played in bringing Apple to AT&T. Starting up their whole deal, getting the iPhone on AT&T — you know, where you sat.
de la Vega: At the time I was the Chief Operating Officer of Cingular Wireless. I was leading the team that met with Apple to figure out how we could make this work and it was a very, very exciting time. We actually started our relationship with Apple way before the iPhone, but a lot of people have never written about that. And that relationship started when we launched the ROKR.
Engadget: Have you ever at any point stopped and thought: is the tail wagging the dog here? Are we going too far to get a lock on this phone?
de la Vega: I think when we started negotiating with Apple and working, Steve’s quote was, and I think it was a very smart one: “This is such new territory for both of us, that we are both going to feel uncomfortable after we get this deal done.” In the end, my realization was, that if you are going to have a partner like Apple who is so innovative and creative, you’ve got to let Apple be Apple…
Engadget: So what was the reason that AT&T didn’t take the calculated risk or take things to the next level when Google was looking for partners with the Open Handset Alliance and for Android?
de la Vega: Well, we’re still open to looking at that. We have not said no to that, but we are still looking at how that is going to work. We want to make sure that it truly is open and gives customers choice. We have lots of existing relationships and we want to make sure that is something that can be supported.
Engadget: A lot of people perceive companies like AT&T and Verizon as having too much control and too much say over what goes on people’s phones and what goes on people’s devices. You know, there is just this extremely tight grip on the software environment and that there is a real conscious effort to keep it FROM being very PC-like.
de la Vega: I think that my biggest disappointment is that we have not been out talking to people like I am talking to you about our philosophy. And that we have let some of us, get painted with that view, which is not true. If you go to our stores you can get your choice of six operating environment systems. Every OS that has been made for phones, our customers have access to.
Engadget: Now that you’re in charge of AT&T Mobility, what is your take on the 700MHz auction and what are your objectives there?
de la Vega: I think the auction is very key because 700MHz is premium spectrum and our wireless company runs on spectrum. So you’ve seen us, before the auction, go in and acquire spectrum through our purchase of Aloha. You know this technology changes all the time. Our network technology changes from 2G to 3G and to the next generation of that, which we call LTE. So we want to make sure that when that technology change comes in that we will have enough spectrum to be able to launch it.
Engadget: From the sound of things, [AT&T VP] Chris Helm more or less verbally wrote off the possibility of AT&T using WiMAX. Are you basically only looking at using at LTE as a possibility at this point?
de la Vega: I think LTE is the most logical choice. You know that it has been approved pretty much worldwide as the next generation technology — for us. We are in the business of connecting people, I can’t connect people if I am using incompatible technology.
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