AT&T CEO Shares Thoughts At Forbes Expo

According to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson while he was speaking at the Forbes MEET II. forum, the iPhone is indeed revolutionary. It's so revolutionary that it's making them reconsider a few things. No, they're not unlocking it yet. He says that people use the internet so much more when they're on an iPhone that it helped them decide to purchase more spectrum.

While most customers have used the internet sparingly, iPhone users have been an unusual exception. He claims that the internet accessing of a user "jumps by multiples" when they switch to an iPhone.

He said that it is in part because of this that they have decided to buy the 700MHz spectrum from Aloha Partners. He claimed that the new spectrum would allow them to provide streaming video more easily than it currently can on today's HSDPA and upcoming HSUPA networks, making storage capacity of large devices less of a limitation.

Still, as of yet he hasn't made any announcements of what he plans to use the 700MHz range for exactly. He did say however that they are (obviously) maintaining their anti-regulatory position when it comes to government intervention (not that you should find that surprising, of course). He notes that government intervention "killed" broadband penetration (one of their competitors) at the turn of the century, and that the same thing would most likely occur again if the government intervened. He noted that while they have no intentions to violate any of the principles of net neutrality but would also resist attempts to pass laws that guarantee a level playing field.

[via MacNN]