Speaking during a keynote session at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai Wednesday, Glen Luire – president and CEO of AT&T Mobility – shared his views about the key attributes of being a next-generation operator and how this could help telcos enable the level of connectivity that customers have come to expect.

Luire said mobile customers nowadays have a whole set of different expectations, and require being connected 24x7.

“To be a next-generation provider, you have to have the vision, you have to understand the trends. You have to invest in the right assets – you have to be bold and courageous to make those investments … to deliver on the experience that your customers expect,” Lurie said. “If you’re going to be a next-generation provider, you must have the assets to support the services.”

He said video, mobile data and IoT are the key trends that are affecting the industry.

Lurie cited research forecasting that the number of users watching video on devices globally will double to 2 billion by 2021. Mobile data traffic is forecast to grow by 20 times to 2021, and there will be 75.4 billion connected things in 2025, he said.

Lurie stressed that network investment was crucial, saying that AT&T has spent $140 billion on networks in the last five years – more than any other company in the US.

“Our focus is on virtualization of our networks, taking our networks from hardware to software, taking our networks to cloud,” Lurie said. “Secondly, our focus is on spectrum.”

Meanwhile investments in innovation are also important for the company’s strategy. 

For instance, Luire noted, AT&T has built six innovation centers across the globe and a studio focusing on connected cars. The firm’s $63 billion acquisition of DirectTV has also strengthened its media presence, he said.