A day after being named the worst wireless carrier in the U.S. by Consumer Reports, AT&T’s head of emerging devices, Glenn Lurie, took the stage at All Things Digital’s D: Dive Into Mobile conference to answer questions about the company’s service as well as the impending threat of the iPhone coming to Verizon.
Lurie points to the “5,000% growth in data usage over the last 3 years” as the primary driver of the difficulties that the company has faced in network reliability — especially in areas like New York and San Francisco.
That growth, says Lurie, is faster than that experienced by any other carrier in the world. Interestingly, he also thinks it has given the company a competitive advantage as other carriers bring more smartphones online, in spite of the hit the brand has taken.
Specifically, interviewer Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal asked about how Verizon’s network might hold up if and when it gets the iPhone, as WSJ has reported it will. While Lurie said he can’t “speak for Verizon,” he added that “We’ve managed a massive amount of data on our network for several years. Many of our competitors have not.”
Moreover, Lurie says says that reliability issues are “not about money,” noting that AT&T has spent more than $18 billion both this year and last to improve its network. Summarizing the competitive threat posed by a Verizon iPhone, Lurie echoed statements of other AT&T execs, saying, “We’re not concerned about it at all.”
He added that given the diversity of device choices and high switching costs for those on family and business plans, he feels confident in AT&T’s position and sees it as similar to when the company lost exclusivity on the RAZR, the hottest phone back in the middle of last decade.
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