- Hello, CTIA, it's great to be talking with you again.
Last year, we talked about the decade
of 5G getting underway.
And I pointed out that we were past the hype phase,
past the theoretical, that we were in the first inning
of what I like to describe as about 10 years of innovation
per wireless generation: our Gs.
A lot's happened since we last spoke both in our world
and within our industry.
When we start thinking about the possibilities of 5G,
one thing became very clear to me,
true change, a major shift in technology,
or how we think about it,
can't and won't come from incumbent thinking.
We need to think differently
because we will miss our biggest opportunities
if we use a 4G mindset in a 5G world.
Insiders like you know that we have critical needs in front
of policy makers and the administration,
things like a cogent well-planned spectrum roadmap
and thoughtful siting policies.
We need a pro-investment, pro-competition approach
that builds off the success that we've seen from 2G to 4G.
Now, all of those are necessary, and they're coming.
So that won't be the focus of my remarks.
What I'm here to talk about is this:
we need to think bigger collectively.
What of the technology that we as an industry provide,
whether 5G, or frankly, any broadband technology
is disruptive in new ways,
disrupting what's expected of it by having an end goal
of creating positive societal change to build a better
and more equitable world.
4G's value ultimately benefited platforms
and the app ecosystem more than anything else.
With bigger thinking,
together we can make sure that 5G does more.
It can help break down the divides that hold us back,
how we teach and learn, how we receive and give care,
how we produce and distribute food,
and how our planet can be protected.
Those things become so much more efficient
with better connectivity, better insight,
better collaboration, better with all the things
that 5G will bring.
So let's be really intentional about this.
Let's have the dialogue,
5G will drive clear economic benefits,
but how might it do more?
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] 5G, a generation to drive us forward.
Together we can use 5G to:
yes, lower latency,
increase download speeds and service,
that's a given.
This decade of 5G will help break down the divides
that hold us back.
Education, healthcare, our environment,
together we will drive incredible leaps forward,
5G. (upbeat music)
- When COVID force families to turn
their living rooms into classrooms,
a key part of the digital divide,
the education divide came into full view.
Unfortunately, the education divide overwhelmingly impacts
Black, Latinx, and Native American students,
who overall did not have equal access to devices
or reliable internet for remote learning.
An interesting McKinsey study estimated
that students of color fell behind 12 to 16 months
with remote learning, compared to 5 to 9 months
for white students.
This learning loss is simply unacceptable.
Things have to change on accessibility.
There's no other way to put it, it must change.
Learning loss is what we can help prevent.
Now, the good news is that our industry is responding
as individual companies and together through efforts
like the CTIA Connecting Kids Initiative,
we've helped connect almost two and a half million children
by providing free or discounted service and devices
in addition to millions of dollars
in donations and resources.
As an industry, we all know we're investing billions
of dollars to improve connectivity and help collapse
these digital and education divides.
On the economic side according to CTIA,
5G will create more than 100,000 jobs in education,
which are badly needed jobs that will teach, inspire,
and empower our country's future leaders.
All of this means that education and learning can evolve
to make exponential leaps forward in this next decade.
Technology can do so much more than just textbooks.
Think about life-size 5G enabled holograms answering
questions from students in their classroom
or in their homes.
A great case study is USC Shoah foundation,
which recently created life-size holograms
of Holocaust survivors in volumetric capture.
This means that students and others
can have actual conversational interactions
with these important eyewitnesses to history.
With AR and VR, students are able to tour a nuclear plant,
visit the bottom of an ocean, or experience a rocket launch
in near real-life form.
All of this will redefine how we learn
at virtually every school in America,
whether urban, rural, or on a reservation.
I wanna now move on to the healthcare divide
and the possibilities there.
You've probably heard a thousand times that 5G
is going to transform the healthcare industry.
And when it comes to potential medical advances
like robotic surgery, remote monitoring, or even nanobots,
that's absolutely correct.
But there's another way
that 5G will ultimately transform healthcare,
and it's also all about access.
The pandemic accelerated the telemedicine
and the telehealth boom due to clear benefits of access,
convenience, and safety.
These are great trends which we can accelerate.
Think about the state of medicine right now.
If you were to contract an aggressive or rare disease,
unless you live near a teaching or specialized hospital
which are most likely in a major city,
you're at a disadvantage simply by proximity.
And that's not okay.
A patient's fate and potentially their survival
shouldn't be determined by proximity,
it should be determined by possibility.
5G promises ubiquity,
and collectively our sites should be set
on the economic delivery of 5G-enabled health
in places like Northern Alaska, West Texas,
reservations, or even the Everglades.
And this can change the idea of what a teaching hospital is
by creating a community of like-minded medical professionals
that spans the world, not just a city.
Not only can 5G solve the problem of proximity,
it can massively improve how doctors are trained.
AR can replicate a real-life surgical procedure.
And building on our education example from before,
at Case Western Reserve University,
medical students are using VR-enabled headsets
to explore incredible three-dimensional images
of the human body and organs.
Today, those headsets are tethered,
but of course, with 5G, they'll soon be wireless
and usable from anywhere.
Meaning that those students and doctors
we talked about earlier from Alaska or the Everglades
can all learn and train remotely.
Now that we've discussed the education divide
and the healthcare divide,
there's one more divide that I wanna focus on today,
and that's the resource divide.
As we think further out in this next decade,
there are huge societal problems that our industry
can help solve.
We don't know all the answers,
so today let's focus on what needs to be solved
instead of how it will happen.
Our planet and how we manage its resources
is one of those issues.
Let's click down into one facet
and talk today about food waste.
Incredibly, we are wasting or throwing away upwards of 40%
of our food.
When even before COVID, more than 42 million Americans,
including 10 million children are suffering
from food insecurity.
That means they don't know where their next meal
will come from.
We can change that even if we don't know
the exact solution right now.
But imagine an intelligent 5G network
across the US connecting those who need food
before it's about to expire or be tossed,
advanced supply chains on standby to deliver it
to those in need.
These approaches can also help make our planet a cleaner
and more sustainable place.
It's estimated that 11% of the world's greenhouse gases come
from food waste,
but the biggest sources are from production,
electricity, and transportation.
As the true power of 5G takes hold,
it has the potential to redefine
what corporate sustainability can be.
Just weeks ago,
AT&T announced the Connected Climate Initiative,
bringing together companies to use technology like 5G
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at enormous scale.
We aim to reduce global emissions by a gigaton by 2035.
That's roughly the emissions
from 200 million vehicles per year.
Now, this isn't just about one company,
it's about all of us coming together.
That's how massive change can happen at scale.
Cars get smarter and more efficient,
connected energy systems maximize output
while minimizing emissions.
We apply that across the board no matter the industry,
and you can start to see what's possible.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Era by era, G by G,
connectivity has paved the way for progress,
(upbeat music)
bringing hope for decades to come.
(upbeat music)
5G will continue this legacy,
making the world a greater place for us all.
(upbeat music)
Together we'll end divides and better our lives,
work, play, community,
and planet.
So what are we waiting for?
Let's change the world together today.
- The connectivity we build creates enormous possibilities.
We've come so far, and our industry is a shining example
of healthy competition,
benefiting both our society and our economy.
We all can and will take this to the next level.
Let's use what we do to have a profound impact
on this next decade.
Disruption doesn't need to only be about markets
and business models.
Real disruption is breaking down divides to solve problems.
It's about becoming more equitable.
That's what I wanna do,
that's what I want us to do as an industry.
We can do so much more for so many more
if we just think differently together, thank you.