@CTIA IT: AT&T’s Donovan keeps the company ball rolling during day 2 keynote

SAN DIEGO – Following up on the opening day keynote from AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, AT&T’s CTO John Donovan used his day two keynote speech to tout both the quality of the wireless carrier’s network as well as provide a hint of doom for those looking to tell wireless operators how to run their networks.
Donovan laid out five truths that he said were paramount to operating in the current wireless environment and used those tenants to frame his discussion.
Donovan’s first truth was that growth happens and then went on to note that while voice traffic has doubled over the past two years, data traffic on the carrier’s network has surged more than 16 times. And despite the thought going through the mind of most in attendance that the time frame provided seem to coincide with the launch of Apple Inc.’s iPhone exclusively on AT&T Mobility’s network, Donovan would only admit that the device was partially the cause. He explained that the number and variety of data-hungry smartphone devices on the carrier’s network had swelled considerably over the past two years and that many of those devices were running data-intensive applications.
In support of that growth, Donovan said AT&T had invested more than $38 billion over the past two years into its networks. This is expected to pay off in support of future growth, which Donovan said would make the traffic passed over the company’s backbone network in 2008 round to zero over the next few years.
The discussion on networks has been a hot topic for the carrier as an increasing number of news stories have centered on coverage and quality issues attributed to the iPhone. Donovan said the carrier was not immune to the reports, but that it plans its network according to consumer wants and needs and not to blog reports.
“We are working incredibly hard to make the experience a great one,” Donovan said, adding a similar comment to what de la Vega said the previous day that the company needs to make sure it can manage its network so everyone has a good experience.
This explosion of growth led to Donovan’s second truth, which was the exotic “law of the jungle.” This law was based on the changing behavior of consumers and what AT&T has needed to do to adjust. Donovan noted that in addition to the capital expenditure figures from the past two years, AT&T Mobility has invested a lot of resources into bolstering its network with new technology and more spectrum. That new technology is the ongoing deployment of HSPA 7.2 that will provide greater network speeds for consumers, while the spectrum enhancements include the 90% percent completion of using 850 MHz spectrum for its 3G services.
Donovan also said the company was doubling its use of fiber to its towers this year, and plans to triple that in 2010, as well we using Ethernet over fiber and copper to cell sites in support of its 3G and planned LTE network deployment.
Similar to a speech given by AT&T SVP of Architecture & Planning Kris Rinne at the recent 4G World event in Chicago, Donovan gave no hint of AT&T’s plans to deploy HSPA technology beyond the 7.2 standard. Instead, Donovan said AT&T would begin testing LTE technology in 2010 with plans to begin commercial rollout in 2011.
On the topic of LTE, and covered by Donovan under the truth of “investing for the future,” Donovan said the carrier was very satisfied with its timing for LTE deployment, noting that it would give the standard both time to mature as well as provide time for device manufacturers to put out products consumers would find appealing. (This section of the speech included none-too-subtle jabs at AT&T’s rival Verizon Wireless, which is planning to have a pair of markets covered with LTE by the end of this year and up to 100 million potential customers covered by the end of 2010.)
Donovan also brought up the wireless industry’s ongoing rush to openness – under the “innovate or die” truth – claiming AT&T had approved more than 1,000 non-stock devices and certified more than 400 devices for its network. He also said that the company has found consumers were more interested in accessing music rather than acquiring music, which AT&T just happens to cater to through various applications like Pandora.
“The music industry needs to innovate and adjust to this shift,” Donovan warned.
Donovan also said the carrier was planning to simplify the application store process for developers by moving to a mobile middleware solution that would allow applications to be written once and be made available across different platforms. This will include opening its APIs to allow applications to work on a broader range of operating systems.