Glenn Lurie now heading up AT&T Emerging Devices
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 15th 2008 12:59PM
posted Oct 15th 2008 12:59PM
Glenn Lurie, formerly the president of National Distribution for AT&T Mobility and in tight with the launch of the iPhone, is sitting in a new corner office today, and the placard outside now reads "President of AT&T Emerging Devices, National Distribution and Resale." In the role, Mr. Lurie will lead the carrier's "strategic initiative to drive the innovation that will bring wireless connectivity to a host of new consumer electronics devices and applications." We're talking PCs, MIDs, UMPCs, cars, navigation systems -- you name it, this is your man for getting AT&T wrapped up in it. One of his first quotes in the new position was that "high-speed wireless broadband service can enhance a huge variety of gadgets," and while some may say that's obvious, we're just glad the man has his sights set in the right direction. More WWAN devices of any kind? Yes, please.
How about driving the quest for eliminating AT&T's dropped call issues?
That would be a good start.
I mean seriously, we're locked into Verizon because we can't rely on AT&T to actually STAY CONNECTED when on a call...Come on now!
I'd love to ditch Verizon in favor of a GSM carrier with crystal clear calls, better phone selection etc. But we use 5,000+ minutes a month each in our business which with AT&T means we have to deal with about a dozen dropped calls EVERY DAY.
I realize this may not be the case everywhere, but it certainly is here in the Portland OR area.
Portland OR is being worked on. There's towers being built at the moment (both GSM and UMTS) they're planned to be activated by Dec 12th 08
What GSMrules said. I've heard work being done on Portland area too, including 850 UMTS overlays.
I live/work in the Seattle area. I work for a Verizon indirect dealer, but use at&t. Why?? Because I've been using at&t for years and with the BlackBerry's I've never had any problem with dropped calls or horrible sound quality. That, partnered with Verizon's "dumming down" of their BlackBerry's...I just don't wanna switch, even though I would get one hell of a deal if iI switched to VZW.
I too am a Verizon indirect dealer and I had ATT for a while and was really happy but switched to keep costs down due to all the calls made to and from bosses and coworkers.
Once I stop working for Verizon, I switch back to ATT (well, once they improve coverage a bit. Verizon does have ATT beat there here in Oregon